The Topeka state journal., 1905-07-27
PosT-NUPTIAL oUTRAGEs.
Terrors of Preparation for Wedding,
Horrors of Bridal Tour.


If it is the province of hygiene to
cure the many superstitions of the
la1ty, in too many instances shared by
the profession, as, for instance, that
an egg is equivalent in nutritive value
TO pound of meat; that the various
mysteries sold in the drug stores as
beef extracts" are sufficient by the
teaspoonful to sustain a famished in
valid or convalescent for twenty-four
hours, more or less. and that milk is
the one grand, important, absolute and
universal food for every breathing
thing-if hygiene could only restrict
itself to such things, it would occupy
US to the very full while the world
shall last. but there are many other
errors almost as widespread and more
fatal in their consequences. 1t is
almost incomprehensible to the
thoughtful physician why the afro
cious vice of wedding, tours has not
been utterly stamped out. No matter
full of energy, how many times the
four hundred years, which the good
DR.. Holmes insists should be the time
of preparation for the newborn in
fant; no matter what adjuncts to ease,
of wealth, of education, of refine
| ment, not one OF them can stand
safely the dreadful physical and
mental exactions of the prolonged and,
too often, deleterious excitement of the
engaged.
somewhat unnatural front which
has attracted and which continues to
attract the betrothed, together with
the six months Siege more or less, of
preparation of tr6usseau, the exac-
tions, impositions and fatigues of the
dressmaker, the same to a lesser de-
| gree of the milliner. and to crown all,
| the dreadful hurry and vigils which
attend the few weeks Immediately pre-
cedinQ the opranOnU
With the groom it is scarcely less
exacting. Whether in business or
whether of leisure, and, like all the
strictly leisure class. driven by the lash
ton divided. his entire habit of life,
so far as it is then formed, COM
pletely subverted, his hurried and fire.
| quently frenzied attempts to regulate
his business affairs in order that he
| may have nothing on his hands to in
terfere; these combined produce a
condition of the system, both mental
and physical, of both the high con-
tracing parties, which peculiarly and
positively unfit them for the dreadful
exactions of a honeymoon trip.
| Immediately upon the conclusion
of the ceremony the youthful couple
proceed with the utmost dispatch to
the train and then begins the most
tiresome episode which human beings
with all the varied ills of life are sub
jected to. To the sensitive, modest
young woman, the mental disquiet of
appearing to the world in the MOTTO
| be-concealed role of bride, is in itself
sufficient, but this must be supple
mented by the discomforts of that
| Procustean travesty, the modern,
| much-overdecorated sleeping car. The
overstudied Indifference of the groom
needs no mention here, as this is not
| intended as a humorous sketch.
Arriving. not at their destination, for
their proper destination will probably
! be a sanitarium, but at the city which
| they have chosen to honor with their
| incognito, they begin life burdensome
from the very strangeness of the room,
of the furniture, of the surroundings,
and the unfamiliar and too often in
digestible, if not absolutely hurtful,
menus. This, however, does not suf-
| flee with the great majority of them.
breakfast before they are off sight
seeing and visiting every celebrity
within twenty miles of the city, too
often in inclement weather. and too
| often in the reaction brought about by
the months of strenuous endeavor
which have preceded the trip. It
| does not suffice that they should thus
drag themselves from post to pillar
ostensibly enjoying these various
sights and landscapes in each others
society, while as Lord Allcash says in
| Era Diavolo,' leach longs for his or
| her sleep all the day." we'll meaning,
misguided friends who have been op-
prised of their arrival, visit the newly
married couple at their hotel in the
afternoon and evening. The bride is
| exposed to series of laborious mental
and physical efforts which might well
break down the strongest and most
robust man. Is it any wonder that
the wedding trip is the first and most
powerful factor in the wretched
health for many years of young
American matrons ?-The Medical
! Brief.