The Savannah morning news., 1904-10-23
BRIDEGR0OMS SCARED AWAY.

bride. says Tit Bits, to find on her
wedding morn that the man who has
been brave enough to lay siege to her
hand and heart lacks the necessary
courage to appear with her at the al
rar.
A lover must be thoughtless indeed
to subject his sweetheart to such a
humiliating experience. and cases are
| fortunately not of frequent occurrence.
/ Such, however, was a Liverpool COM
mercial clerk, who for five long years
had been the accepted sutton of the
| good-looking daughter of a small local
tradesman.
The banns had been duly published,
and every arrangement made for a
right royal celebration of the suspicious
| event. Radiant in her smart bridal
attire, the bride was punctually at the
church, but alas! the bridegroom came
not, and after waiting half an hour
messengers were dispatched in search
of him.
| They proceeded to his parents house
and were assured by his mother that
he had left the house at the appoint
ed time to go to the church, as she
really believed he had. The search
ers expressed their doubts, and, net
| tied at this, she invited them to go
through every room in the dwelling,
| the missing bridegroom was found hid
ing among the coal in the cellar!
| His only explanation WAS that he had
| not the nerve to go to the church to
be married, and with this precious
piece of news the messengers return
| ed to the waiting bride. On learning
| the cause Of the young mans absence
she quietly went back to her parents
home, and eight weeks later reappear-
ed at the altar with another bridegroom,
who was only too eager to face it.
| Not long ago a somewhat similar in
| cident was reported from Birmingham.
In an eastern suburb a marriage had
been arranged between a youth of IS
and a girl twelve months his senior,
With her friends and relatives the bride
! awaited at the church the coming of
her groom, but she waited in vain, for
he had not put in an appearance when
the legal hours for the performance
of the ceremony had passed.
The disappointed damsel was carried
to her home in a swoon, from which
she did not recover for some time. ON
being appealed to for an explanation
of his extraordinary conduct, the moth
er of the absent bridegroom stated that
he went to church as arranged, but on
seeing the crowd that had assembled
there his courage left him and he
| fed
On another occasion the University
| town of Cambridge furnished a singu-
lar example of what may be termed
marriage fright. All ar lngements had
| been made for the union of the high
| contracting parties.
1t should be mentioned that the cou-
pie had met and carried on their court
ship in London, where both were en-
ployed and the bridegroom had gone
| so far as to bring his parents down
for the ceremony. But on the mar
riage morn the young man himself was
missing, the clergyman who had been
engaged to tie the knot waiting in
vain for him for the space of half an
| hour.
Then it transpired that the BRIDE
groom, under the pretense of going for
walk, had left his lodgings at an
early hour and made his way to the
railway station. There he had taken
a ticket for Stratford under the in
fiuence of what was believed to be
an attack of marriage fright.
The same thing actually caused a
London bridegroom to become a wan
| dering lunatic. He was a ticket col
lector on one of the London railways,
but on the eve of his intended mar
riage he mysteriously disappeared, and
the wedding had perforce to be post
poned.
The sequel was his appearance a day
| or two later in the Police Court on
| a charge OF being a demented wan
derer. He had been found by local
policeman sleeping in a field and his
demeanor on being aroused was such
] as clearly showed he was not respon-
sibe for his actions.
The unfortunate man was conse-
| quently conveyed to the police station.
where his conduct confirmed the i'm
| preston that he was not i'm his right
/ ind In fC he foI y
time in signaling imaginary trains in
and out of the station, collecting ina
! ginary tickets and initiating the other
| duties discharged by him in the course
of his daily avocation.
| Another bashful bridegroom I'm the
Midlands led his sweetheart a pretty
dance and then could not pluck up suf-
ficient courage to meet her at the altar.
! His diffidence was so great that the
young lady had to put up the banns"
| herself, which she did with his full
approval. AS the wedding day APP
preached he became greatly agitated
and there were outward and visible
signs that his forthcoming appearance
! at the church in the character of a
| bridegroom was preying very much
upon his mind.
Finally he must have decided that II
/ would prove more than he could stand.
for he made his way to Manchester
| the day before that fixed for the we'd
ding, and, becoming helplessly intoxi-
Gated, and locked up by the police and
brought before magistrate next morn
ing. In default OF pawn OF a fine
he was sent to prison f. ZEE DAYS.
and 1t is no exaggeration say that
! he was a very willing prisoner. the
| fact being that this was his very
| clumsy pNan for escaping the we'd
/ ding ceremony. After that his bride
refused to have anything further to do
with him.
young man in the neighborhood OF
Nottingham was on his way to the
| church where he was to be married
when he was overcome by the formi-
dable nature of the ordeal and could
not face IT,. Bidding a companion wait
for him. he suddenly ran into a public
house and out the back way without
calling for the liquor which his friend
concluded he had gone in for. needing
| Dutch courage.
While his bride was awaiting his
arrival in tears at the church the BRIDE
! groom was i'm a railway carriage on
| his way to London, where, with the
| young lady's blessing he can remain
forever so far as she is concerned.