The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-07-20
RING NOT SUBJECTION.
History Refutes This Idea; Original
Bound Legal Contract.

beautiful Shackle in the world. Were
it not for the enterprise of the jewel
ers it might be we'll on its way to OBJ
science for women, but it has be-
come almost obsolete for men. There
have been long and strong protests
against the badge of servitude, says
the New York Sun.
But in America it has ben made
light. 1t is beautifully carved in
roses, organge blossoms or ivy
wreaths. 1t is made in red and green
and yellow gold. 1t may be plati-
mum. 1t may be glittering hoop
that is all jewels.
Then, of course, there is the min
or matter that most persons are not
so advanced that they have lost their
sentiment about wedding rings, that
they still honor their traditions and
have no desire to discard their sum-
'bols.
The fuss about the wedding ring
being a mark of servitude is one of
the funniest conceptions that ever
frothed in feminist brain. In Eng
land women have gone to far as to
have a movement to force all married
men to wear a wedding ring and to
let women do just hs they like about
it. Where they ever get these strange
ideas is mystery to those who know
the history of the wedding ring.
DR.. Johnson's Idea.
They must have read the definition
of ring in old DR.. Johnson's diction-
ary, gotten into an awful rage at his
presumption and never stopped talk
ing about it. DR.. Johnson did write
one Of the meanest things ever writ
ten about rings. He says: "a ring is
a circular instrument placed upon the
noses of hogs and the fingers of wo-
men to bring them into subsection.
This might be reported as vagary
of DR.. Johnson's brain, an elephan-
tine attempt at humor, born of too
much tannin in a pot of boiled tea.
The wedding ring has an idea even
harder and more practical back of it.
It's actual history does not bear out
the notions of either the sentimental
lists of the feminists. 1t has clearly
had the same relation to the mar
riage contract that the payment of
earnest money has now to the legal
closing of a business contract. The
metal in the ring was the valuable
consideration" to bind the bargain
when the betrothal engagement was
completed.
1t was once the custom in England
for the bridegroom to give the bride
a little purse filled with money at the
altar as we'll as the ring. This ap-
pears in the words of the ceremony
as given in an old edition OF the
Prayer Book:
with this ring I thee wed
'This gold and silver give thee.'
This custom of giving the bride
thirteen pieces of gold as wedding
day gift from the bridegroom is still
observed in some Latin countries.
Ring Sign of Custodian.
The ring was the sign that the wife
was entrusted with her husbands
property; specially valuable posses
sions were delivered into her care.
She was responsible for them. We'd
ding rings were often used as seal and
with them the fastenings of house
hold treasures were stamped.
This was the distinctly understood
use to which they were put in Rome,
where the wedding ring was of iron.
The plain gold band is by no means
the universal standard regulation
wedding ring. All sorts of metals
have been used for rings. The idea
that it is bad luck to take it off the
finger has no particular antiquity,
nor has the notion been generally
held that it must be worn on the
ring finger" Of the left hand.
Roman rings we're iron seal rings
and it was common for man to give
his wife two of them-one, of gold,
to wear outside the house for show
and one, of iron, for every day use.
Rings of sard and onyx, made of the
stone without any metal, have been
used a great deal in the near East. In
shape they resemble the gold new
style ring Of today, being narrow and
thick.
Silver wedding rings have been
common and the white metal was
used from preference Some of the
French bishops of the thirteenth GEN.
tury went so far as to insist upon
silver rings. Customs varied in diff
ferent dioceses. The bishop Of Paris