The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1904-08-19
he Is a Development From an
Ancient Scottish Custom
at the Nuptials.
HAS A "BEsT MAID" ALSO
Under the Old Regime the Best Man
Gave the Bride Away and Passed
the Cake and Cups-Some
Gases in Literature.

north, also, the principal bridesmaid
used to be called the best maid"
Neither expression has much to recon-
mend it. 1t is a great pity. indeed.
that best man." AN inelegant and in
itself meaningless phrase, should hav
so completely ousted from IL common
everyday speech the good old English
name of "brideman' or "bridesman."
Another old name is ''eroomsman," and
in days gone by the bridegroom was at
tended, not by one friend, bu by sew
eral, who We're known as the bridemen
or grOOplSmen.
The term best man" came into use,
presumably, to indicate the one of these
who took the lead iii performing their
various duties and was in closest at
tendance on the bridegroom. In recent
years the custom of having groomsmen
has been occasionally revived, but 1t
has not become general. AT a fashion,
able wedding, four or five years ago,
the bride was content with five brides
maids and two pages. whereas the
bridegroom vas supported by no fewer
than nine l'oomsmen.
But at the present time such an ar
ray has by no means the same mean
Ing, nor are those attendant friends of
SO much use, as in days of old. The
f~orerunner of the brakeman was the
brideleader, whose duty it was to bring
the bride to the bridegroom. In most
countries where the real or pretended
capture of the bride was an essential!
part of the ceremony, and wherever
traces of the very ancient custom of
bride capture existed, the friend or
friends of the bridegroom had the inn
portant office of capturing the lady and
bringing her to her lord.
Dryden as Witness.
In one of Dryden's plays there is the
line: "BetwiXt her guards she seemed
by bridemen led" and Brand tells us
that at many old English weddings the
bridegroom was led TO the church be
tween two maids, and the bride by two
young men. holding her by the arms
as If unwilling. This was evidently a
survival of the idea of capture.
h same idea, somewhat more dis
guised. can be traced in the custom
which was not unknown at old-fash-
toned weddings less than a century ago,
in the north of England, and in the
west of Scotland, of the bridesroom's
best man" escorting the bride to the
church. 1t has been disputed, natural
ly. whether the groom's nearest friend
was chosen as escort with the idea of
protecting the lady from seizure by
others, or whether he might be re-
garded as the leader in the act of cap
ture.
But whichever idea lay at the back
of the practice, it was clearly d survival
SoiilltctGu MIN lle custom OIL marriage
by capture. Later, the bridemen had
various functions 10 perform which
have now become obsolete. There was
still q trace of the capture in the old
duty at one time assigned to the BRIDE
mar, of giving the bride away. Re led
her to the church and then acted the
part now filled by the lady's father or
other near male relative.
In the old seventeenth century ballad
of the Colder Glove" which used to
be a great favorite at rural gatherings
In all parts of She country in the old UNI
sophisticated days. before the melan-
choly monstrosities of the modern mu-
sic hall had driven the genuine old
English ballads and songs out of use
and memory-in this ballad there are
the lines which allud to the custom
named:
IL thought you had been at the wedding"
she cried.
ITO wait on the squire and give him his
bride"
And it has been pointed out that the
same custom may be limited at in the
marriage service rubric-"The minister
receiving the woman at her fathers
friends hands,"
Custom in Shropshire.
Among the Shropshire peasantry in
quite recent years something of the old
custom seems to have prevailed. Miss
Burne in her delightful book on
shropshire Folklore" says that at
Weddings in humble life the BRIDES
father is seldom and her mother never
present. AS a rule the only companions
to church of the bride and groom are
best man and the bridesmaid. In
such circumstances it is obvious that
the lady must be given away by her
lovers friend, on whose arm she has
walked to church.
A still more curious thing is that it
us ppnClIara -11JnlI. Mics y,,..&, fN1l-
US. for either the best man or the
bridesmaid to be already married. II
have seem she writes, "a married
woman acting as bridesmaid" Less
than twenty years ago a Newport
ding said that Mr.. and Mrs. So-and-so
Of, accompanied the happy couple
and performed the offices Of best man
and bridesmaid. respectively.
Another old function of the bride
men. or b~ridesuuires. as they were
sometimes called, was to carry around
bridebowl. or cup. was handed around
at a wedding. SO that the friends might |
drink the health of the newly married |
pair--a kline of loving cup ceremony.
But before the proceedings had
reached this pleasant point. it had been
bride over the threshold. This is an
and widespread custom, the
meaning of which has caused much
shedding of ink. In the west of Scot
land, of old, says Mr.. Napier, In his
book on the folklore of that region,
the threshold of the house was dis
enchanted by charms and by %annoint-
ing it with certain u%nctuous perfumes.
but as 1T was considered unlucky for
the Wife to tread upon the threshold
on first entering her house, she was
lifted over it n seated upon a piece
of wood. a symbol Of domestic in
dustry."
The custom is not confined to Euro
pean peoples, for a somewhat analogous
practice exists in China, where the
bride is carried into the house by ne
matron, and at the door is lifted over a
pan Of charcoal. Apart from marriage,
ever In this country. there are folk
who are careful on entering a house to
step over n not on III threshold.
There is a world of lore. indeed, sur
rounding the subject Of the thresholds
into which we annot here enter.
The modern best ma may feel
thankful that his duties are not SO on
AAnr,a oa th1cn of Hlo L