The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-08-24

! tudes Of courtship, yet the wedding, the
climax to which all the preceding chap
tiers have led up, is dismissed In para
graph. Often the novelist stops snort
at the engagement, leaving the reader
in doubt whether the wedding ever took
place or whether the prospective bride
| exercised inalienable right to change her
mind. All this is done notWithstand-
ing the fact that the wedding day IS
popularity supposed to be certainly the
| happiest if it is not also the most I'M
portant, event in the lives of men and
women-a day of feasting and rejoicing,
rich in what is known In New YORK dali
" newspaper offices as human inter-
est"
1t is strange coincidence that artists
seem to be as loath to depict the pic
turesque incidents of the wedding day
as authors. Thousands of sheep ana cat
tie pictures are in existence holy
Families" 'Madonnas" and Mother
Loves may be numbered by hundreds.
There are enough paintings of News
From the Front to show that man
kind has always been kept well Informed
Of the progress of events on the line OF
battle. Cupid, even, has no trouble IN
getting his FRANKS perpetuated In UNI
fading pigments. But Hymen rarely
has found an opportunity to appear on
canvas. A careful search through all
available data reveals the existence in
Europe and America of only one hum
dred and ten paintings portraylng incl
dents directly connected with the we'd
ding day This does not include the nu-
merous conceptions of the Marriage III
Cana" nor the still more numerous
MARRIAGES of st, Catherine OF these
latter there are enough in English col
lections alone to fill good-sized gallery.
1t is a poor English art collection indeed
that does not contain at least one Mar
riage of ST. Catherine" In the collec-
ton of the most honorable the marquis
of Westminster, at Grosvenor House,
there are no fewer than four pictures Of
the Marriage of ST. Catherine" At
Hampton Court are two more; at Dull
witch Gallery is another. Wilton House
the seat of the right honorable the earl
of Pembroke; Stourhead, the seat of Sir
Richard Colt Hare; the BridgeWater
Gallery; the seat Of the Saekvilles at
Knole, In Kent--each has one; while
Burleigh House, the seat of the marquis
of Exeter and Stafford House, the seat
of the duke of Sutherland, each has
three. The Louvre has four Marriages
of st. GATHERINGS" but only three other
paintings Of weddings in a total of 2,745
pictures When the statement that all
these numerous marriages of st. Cath
crime are different scenes painted by |
different artists is coupled with the re-
collection that st. jerome speaks OF
widow whom he does not name, who |
married twenty-five husbands, the lnev-
liable deduction places the good st. |
Catherine in a false and most embar- |
RAISING light 1t is only fair TO her to |
explain that all these numerous pictures |
are ali religious in character and that |
they merely illustrate the artists vari- |
GUS conceptions Of the legend concern |
ing the saint and Savior.
The same data which contains refer |
enees to the one hundred and ten we'd |
ding pictures also mentions two paint |
ings on the subject Of divorce. A pro-
portion Of two legal separations to one |
hundred and ten marriages shows that |
the divorce rate in art, as In real life, is
IdlHer HlSH
An analysis of the statistics shows
that forty-one of. the one hundred and
two artists who have painted wedding
pictures were American or English; the
others were distributed throughout the
of Europe. Forty-seven of
the wedding pictures are owned in
America, nineteen being in permanent !
in New York city; the rest
are scattered all over Europe. Thirty
one artists have chosen for their theme
some incident directly connected with
the marriage ceremony The scenes of
seven other pictures are laid before"
the wedding, and three after" the we'd
ding. Eleven treat of wedding process
sions, seven of wedding parties, five of
wedding feasts, three of wedding trips
and three of wedding gifts. The gene
raj belief that brides do an unusual |
of primping on their wedding
lays is confirmed by the discovery that
no fewer than eight artists have devo-
ted their talents to the mysteries of the
Toilet OF the Bride Another shows
The choosing of the wedding jewels, an
other the selection of the wedding gown,
while still another reveals the process
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