The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-06-14
Y A WOMAN
DARENTS with marriageable daugh-

DARENTs with marriageable daugh-
ters would save a great deal Of
trouble for themselves and other
people if they would encourage
their offspring to elope. 1t would cer-
tainly simplify matters greatly. No
fuss and feathers: no anxious consul.
| tation of expense accounts: no little
jealousies; no concern about the length
of a train-if only it may be caught;
nothing but a rope ladder, a cloudy
night, and somnolent father. What
joy to suddenly decide Lets get
married right now" No bridesmaids
bouquets to worry over; no original
ideas embodied in gifts to ushers; no
worry lest the ring or the fee be for
gotten; no feeling, on the part of the
bridegroom, that he is absolutely a
superfuous man. alone in the wide
world; no visions of future in which
young wife is utterly given over to
frills and the fit Of bodice in the
back and the worship of a fetish in the
shape of houseful of wedding pres
ents. No long and wearisome days and
weeks before the ceremony when only
feeting glimpses of his fair little
sweetheart can be caught between the
barriers of awful dressmakers, man,
ma with a. stern and awesome brow
and cohorts of girl friends, who hustle
him out of the way as if he were
political enemy or at least POOR, weak
Individual with opinions which are
carelessly consulted and straightway
ignored.
And the bride herself-how very nice
to elope out of the wearisome hours of
standing awhile on one foot first, then
awhile on t'other to be moulded into
a gown; to escape all the dstracting
veXations of trying to invent a new
way of disposing of bridesmaids in the
professional and a different and more
fascinating style of gown than ever
bride wore before; to get out of the
consequences attendant upon omissions
of dearest friends from the invita-
tiOn list, and have to write no sweet
notes of thanks to personal enemies
who have sent wedding gifts. How
lovely! but you'd never find girl who
thinks so or who from choice would
give up her natural and unalien-
able right to a big and fashionable
wedding. Why not? OF course, why
shouldn't she want to cling to the
tradition of her foremothers, bless her
heart! Why should she relinquish the
bliss Of being able to say in the COM
ing years, 1.-THE satin in my gown
would stand alone: the veil wore was
lace of two generations ago; had so
many bridesmaids. They say 1t was
the prettiest wedding of the year."
Why not, indeed! So she and her
daughter and daughters daughter will
keep on having splendid weddings and
they will be the sweetest brides on the
green earth and will make your eyes
dim just a little as you look at them
going to the altar with their handsome,
stately fathers, clinging fast to those
protecting arms, and seeming so dear
and fragile, with the innocent soul of
| a lily.
All the same there Is certain
charm In the idea of clipping. l blush
to write this, for 1t would break my
heart to think of any the sweet girls
I know as running off and leaving a
stain, sinister indeed, on the white
pages of their life: but still there must
he fascination, at least for man, in
the thought of emerging from his pre-
scribed role as a nonentity for weeks
preceding a fashionable wedding, and
suddenly asserting himself. clasp his
bride-to-be in his arms and run away
with her out Of 1t all, beyond the night,
across the day, before she would have
time or breath to protest against leav-
ing all her wedding gifts. How she
would love him for his impetuosity and
how her relatives and friends, par
ticularly the bridesmaids, would hate
him!
There is one thing-culture or some-
thing-is working revolution in the
methods observed In connection with
weddings. The wild exuberance of the
fiendish usher and the diabolical in
genuity of the bridesmaid seem to be
subslding. At the recent weddings in
this city there was a notable absence
Of the disgusting horse-plays which has
sometimes attended the going away Of
the bride and groom. Whether the
bridesmaids and ushers We're selected
particularly for their refinement as
well as for their good looks has not
been divulged by those most interest
ed but certainly the sensibilities and
the delicacy of'the chief fguresdn the