The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-06-22

and guarded by folklore. Present.
Day proclaimed skepticism to the con.
trary Notwithstanding, this statemen1
Is ready OF proof. Which being tbs
TACT it becomes an of-course thar sc
vastly important a matter as love
should be Of all things richest in its
literature of prediction and omens.
The "Who:" and the When" and me
How" Of courtship and marriage all
are foretold.
Such changes, however, are 10 the
outward seeming only. Love alters
not with the passing centuries, nor
has its lengthy creed lost materially
of the ceremonial tenets of an older
day. There is that old warming cou-
| plet: D..
Change the name and not the letter.
Change for worse and not for better.
Miss Brown may ignore it to become
Mrs. Bevers and Miss White may laugh
at it while telling her intimates tina
! she is to be Mrs. Wells; but dc not
both of them in that very laughing.
doubling apology thereby prove this
all-but-immortal folklore of marriage,
" though, as daughters of the new
est Of the centuries, they decline who'll
ly 10 be bound by it? To be sure, az
elder and unmarried sister no longer
feel it incumbent upon her 10 dance
barefoot at the younger maiden's
bridal, so to ward off the hiIeous
threat of spinsterhood, nor has
that venerable prophecy its one
time weight - about Thrice a
bridesmaid, eve a bride"-but, for
the rest, hymeneal superstitions are
practically as abundant and as reyered
as ever they were.
CUPID FIXES THE MONTH.
For the days of engaged impatieAce
and blissful planning, the wel1-obsarv-
ed dictates Of Dan Cupid are all but
endless. First must be considered
the month. To begin with, Lent. you'll
barred; for Married in LENT, you'll
live to repent" and the average girl
will decide such a question without
hesitation, even at the cost of waiting
forty days longer. May, too, is held
unlucky. Perhaps this belief goes
back to Ovid's time. for the Latin
poet laid a ban upon the month as
hat in which fell the celebrations
in honor Of the great dead. Perhaps
Plutarch laid his wiser finger on the
root of the evil, in calling attention TO
the fact that a May wedding sighted
Venus and Juno, whise months were.
respectively, April and june Per
haps the fifth month is really unlucky.
for nc other easOn than that in Il
Mary Queen of Scots began her own
much-married and nOne-tOO-fortunate
career. The truth, though its origin is
obscure m down to this, that
those four weeks of lavishly beautiful
widowed you'll be before your prime
stage settings are yet looked upon as
kGnce.
Not one of the months but it has its
w prediction. Thus runs the best
known of the formulate:
Married in January's hoar and time,
Widowed you'll be before pourt prime;
Married in Febr'ys sleety weather.
life you'll tread in tune together.
Married when March winds shrill
and roar, your home will lie on a for
eign shore;
Married meath April's changefui
skies, a checkered path before you lies:
Married when bees DER May-blooms
fit, strangers around your board will
sit;
Married in queen-rose month of
June, life will be one long honey
Married as July's fower-banks blaze
bitter-sweet memories in after days;
Married in August's heat and browse
lover and friend in your chosen spouse
Married in gold September's glow,
smooth and serene your life will flow;
Married when leaves in October thin,
toll and hardship for you begin;
Married in wells of November, mist
fortune your wedding ring has kissed.
Married in days of December cheer,
Loves star shines brighter from year
to year.
1t may be amusingly evident from
this that the seerS at Cupid's shrine
have tried hard to say nice things of
pretty nearly all the units that go to
build up the year ('playing safe"
would be the term used of their craft
by the betting fraternity
WORK FOR THE BRIDE-TO-BE.
Every single day of the preparation
has its own time-honored instructions
for the happy little woman in the
case. If she is wise, she will add to
her inward rejoicings, as we'll as sat
isfy the Fates, by doing herself a
good part of the work upon her trous-
And by all means should she
help mix the bridal-cake; b may
not spoil it, and she certainly will
advance her chances for that joy of
life, which (of course!) she deserves.
Everyone knows it is bad luck to
put on the entire wedding-outit before
the final dressing for the ceremony it. |
self. and almost every bride knows !
the color of her gown for that |
most momentous Of all moments is 4 |
noI to be settled merely by I!
is becoming. What is written
in the hymeneal law and prophets? ,
Married in gray, you will go far
away; |
Married in black, you will wish /
yourself back. !
Married in brown, you will live out !
town; !
Married in red, you will wish your
self dead;
Married in pearl, you will live in a J
whirl;
Married in greer, ashamed to be