The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1910-03-31

bride my bride" The girls here
speak to me Of Clair's wife as your:
bride. ~ So these people fixed it up
with Anna s parents, before she knew
anything about it, and the date for.
the engagement was set. Miss Bush
nell tried to persuade them to wait
until after Anna graduated, but one
of the girls was going to CONSTANT
nople, and she wanted her brother to
get married before she left, so it had
to be. During the engagement, Baron
Alexander came to see Anna a few
times, they we're engaged three weeks,
and then married. Then the bride
goes to live in the groom S home, with
all the other sons wives and families.
The new bride is an object of scorn.
She cannot speak when in the
presence of any male member of the
family, or any female member older
| than herself. Her mother-in-law is
usually a perfect tyrant. Part of the
wedding ceremony is for the bride to
go around and kiss the hands of all
the groom's family. The celebration
after the ceremony lasts all night,
and the bride cannot sit, or take any
thing to eat, or speak. She is closely
yelled. The next day she is still on
her feet all day, bringing refresh
ments to the callers, and showing
the things in her box. That evening
she must dance to show off her
wedding dress. Of course, some of
the people are getting little en-
lightened, and the bride has to wear
veil and keep silent only few days
or weeks, but in many homes the GUS
tom is kept up until another bride
comes. In many, too, the bride is
free after the birth of the first son.
Aghavne, one of our teachers, who
was married last fall, has been freer
than any other bride ever known in
this city. She and Avoids got en-
gagged because they wanted to. He
courted her quite in the American
style, and they were engaged eight
months before the wedding, when be
came to see her often. She had no
veil over her face during the cere-
mony, no celebration after it, and Mr..
Stapleton performed the ceremony
leaving out the word "obey", though
the native pastor read the passage
about wives being obedient to their
husbands, before the ceremony. Her
mother-in-law wasn't in the city for
the ceremony, but treated her we'll,
and gave her permission to speak as
soon as she came. She gets a letter
from him every week, too, mighty nice
letters, and husbands in this country
don't often write to their wives. They
60 away hunting work, and don't
come back for months or years, and
the wife and children starve or live.
as they best can.
There is lot of howl in the papers
| about there being so many divorces in
America, but since saw this country,
L think that is nothing to howl about.
Of course they don't have divorces
here, nor in any other country 1 sup
pose, where the wife is simply the
slave of her husband and his family.
Out in Heregnas' village the other
day l took a picture of the priests
family. The priests wife wanted to
send for her Oldest daughter, who is
married, but the priest said emo" and
seemed very angry, so I asked
Heregnas to explain. The girl was
married when IL years old to boy of
l5,-the son of rather we'll TODD
family-but they gave the new bride
the hard work to do, among it the
bringing of the water from the
fountain and the lifting of their beds,
really their mattresses, up on the high
shelf where they are kept. The girl
couldn't stand the work and got sick,
so her mother-in-law turned her out.
and she went home begging to be
taken back. Her mother wanted to
take her in, but her father said it
would never do for him. a priest, to
let his daughter leave her husband.
that the people we're married for life,
and that she must 60 back and en-
dure anything they did to her. So
she is there now, and he wouldn't let
her come to be in the picture, for fear
she would cry and beg to stay at
home. Such is life in Turkey. OF
course the Turks have many wives,
| but the Armenians never Int ono