The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-20


The parlor into which we now made an
impressive entry-led by the hand and
followed by dozen clamoring women
( looked like an immense circus chariot in
which the Amala gamated Sisterhood of
the Fat Women of the World was having
a party Perfectly enormous gilt chairs
and sofas upholstered in bright red bro
cade were set solidly around the walls.
They certainly locked like a circus cha
riot in sections. AS for the women-but
want 20 reserve my description for the
brides who were like all the rest, only
more So However, they were all like the
furniture; gigantic and gorgeous and I'M
communicative so far as we were con-
cerned, though that was just as much our
fault as IL was theirs. But we tried to
smile 10 all the known and the unknown
/ languages. whereas most of the large,
/ languid ladies of the chariot simply re-
tanned the wide-eyed, docile look of
| cow.
Suddenly this all changed. We had been
| led to places next to shining lights in the
AmaIgamated Society and were fairly
| whitening our bouquets by the melting
| warmth of our smiles, wban the chariot
became the scene of indescribable confu-
sion. A red fez appeared in the doorway!
| Even the bovine minds of our new ac-
| quaintances grasped the fact that there
must be a man under the fez and the hub
| bub was indsscriba BILE. One airy, fairy sis
I
me- tried in vain-to hide behind me, and
| finding that It was manifestly impossi-
| BILE caught up my dress skirt and hid her
blusFing countenance in its folds. The fez
covered the head of a young nephew of the
bridegroom's. 1t seemed that he was tall
of his age, but not old enough to be con-
| sidered taboo"
! After he had disappeared the Amalga-
mated Sisterhood, with much gasping and
putting, recovered It's equilibrium ana
some of the members lighted their Gig
arettes by way of calming down. One OF
them. who was more hospitable by nature
| than she was inviting in appearance, light
ed a cigarette and then blandly removed
| it from her own lips and presented it to
mine. At this moment, fortunately, the
| brides approach was announced. Pell
| nell in front of her came a higgledy-pig-
| gledy group of slatternly women who were
probably servants and poor relatives. They
| wore cotton dresses of the Mother Hub
bard variety and every few moments one
| of them would suddenly give vent to
weird, ear-piercing trill, executed by means
of some mysterious conjunction of the
tongue and the teeth. The bride was in
the center of the medley In front of her
was a coal black Nubian woman in a
| white gown, which splendidly set off her
| ebony skin. The Nubian had a fan which
she waved in front of the bride and anoth-
er servant made an attempt to keep the
|
feet of the procession.
The bride was dumped, as If she were a
sack of potatoes. onto one of the chariot
seats and we and our bouquets were
led up before her. The poor thing
seemed more like a sleepy owl or an
overfed animal than like human being.
Somebody got her TO her feet, we shook
a lifeess hand into which we forcibly
stuffed our bouquets and then beat re-
| treat TO a corner from which we could
watch proceedings. The bride was great,
| shapeless mass of White-brocaded satin
She must have been almost six feet tall
| and was even more remarkable for her
| horizontal proportions. Her gown was of
a large figure and was made In two parts;
a waist, gathered amply at the neck and
| the belt and a skirt which was also gen.
| erously and impartially gathered into the
belt She was powdered to dead white
ness, which, added to her stolid features,
made her face about as expressive as
| whitewashed fence. She wore few orna-
ments, because she was a widow.
little later we were taken to see the
other bride who had been reported to us
| occasionally as stu dressing. We did not
| doubt ii when we saw her. She received
us in her bed room. In one corner was
q great bed entirely covered with pink
| Canopy, coverlet valence, steps Ito climb
into iD-all were of bright pink satin with
| gold fringe and embroidery. A cotton
covered divon ran around the sides of the
| room and there was a table in the CEN
ter. There was no. other furniture-ex-
cept the bride. This being her first matri-
| montal venture she was more gorgeously
| arrayed than Number One. Her white
satin gown had broad stripes of tinsel
running through Il and she wore on her
head and around her neck a great lot of
| gilt tinsel like the silver threads with
which we decorate Christmas trees. But
| she was even more huge, more shapeless
and more stolid than the first one As for
| the female friends of the brides, they wore
great brocades of blue or pink or white
ell made in the same formless fashion
Not all the women We're tell but with
beautiful unanimity they excelled in avoir-
\ dupois
In the second brides salon-which look
| ed Just as much like circus chariot as
| the first one-there was a crowd of native
women and their servants and a sprink-
| ling of European women who had come
| as we had.
where's the bride?" demanded one
American woman Of our Syrian chaper-
| one
(Which bride?"
(which? Are there more than one?"
There are two"
Two! oh, these greedy men! Think
of committing matrimony by Wholesale"
but there are two husbands madame"
"Oh" with evident disappointment. "I
thought there was only one and that he
was taking several brides at once to save
time and expense. Well. when will 1t
be?'
"What?"
'Why. the wedding"
This is it,"
rs this all? What about the cere-
mony?"
There Is no cermony."
mo ceremony! Suffering Mosesr'
burst forth the American woman; lis
this all we have come to see?"
But Just then half dozen native wo-
men, who were sitting cross-legged in one
corner of the room, began beating rude
tambourines and chanting a Midway re-
| frain. a girl with green dress. much
| embroidered got UP, stretched herself
| took off an upper garment and motioned
| the servants to clear a circle in the mid
| die of the room. Her eyebrows were
| biackened to width of over half an
inch in the middle, where they were made
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