On the Decay of Paper

1895

The introduction of wood fiber into the manufacture of paper, its economical production and the attractiveness of the article so produced have combined to tempt the paper maker not to make for "all time," but for the day, and only sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.

Modern methods of book illustration require a paper of fine, even surface, with the property of semiabsorption of printers' ink, and this latter requirement has resulted in the very considerable use of what is known as "half sized" paper — i.e., paper which has but a small proportion of gelatin or other size, on which the permanent cohesion of the paper depends. Such paper cannot resist the influences of alternate variations of temperature and humidity to which all books are exposed, and thus ultimate decay is probable. — Notes and Queries.



The Wedding "Obey"

She was not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. — Matthew Henry.

The Vender of Paternity

1895

For a curious profession and one which is little known commend us to the Parisian vender of paternity. He appears to be an individual who takes upon himself the risk of severe punishment if detected in the carrying out of his business, which is to stand in a place of a father to young men who wish to marry and cannot get the sanction of their parents. The vender of paternity here steps in and goes through all the formalities at the mayor's office. — St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Penny Weddings

1900

The Scotland penny weddings were so called, although the guests contributed shillings and occasionally half crowns, toward the wedding feast.

The penny wedding of Germany is on a different basis. The bride receives her guests with a basin before her, in which everybody deposits a jewel, a silver spoon or piece of money. In some parts of Germany the expense of a marriage is met by each guest paying for what he eats and drinks, and, moreover, at a very high rate, so that the young couple obtain a sum sufficient to start them nicely in life. As many as 300 guests often assemble.

In Poland a girl is not eligible for marriage until she has not only made her own trousseau, but the garments for the friends that will accompany the bridegroom to the altar.

Groom's Brother Marries Bride's Sister

New York, 1912

Following the example of their brother and sister, Miss Beatrice Loope and Harold Warner, both of Liverpool were quietly married Saturday night at the home of the Rev. S. R. Ball, pastor of the Liverpool Methodist church. The bride's sister, Miss Nina Loope, and the groom's brother, Fred Warner, were married a year ago by the Rev. Mr. Ball. There was opposition to both marriages on the part of the parents of both couples.

—The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, June 10, 1912, p. 16.

Many United States Sailors Marry Irish Brides

1919

Plans for Dismantling Naval Stations Are Going Forward Rapidly

Queenstown, Ireland. — Plans for the dismantling of the American naval stations in and around Queenstown are going forward rapidly. Time will be required to remove the base hospital at White Point and much work will be involved in removing the many big warehouses which were brought here from America and set up in record time. Other important parts of the American plant include wireless stations at Queenstown and Aglada and many hutments.

American officers and men have made a deep impression on the people of Queenstown and in other parts of South Ireland, and relations generally have been of the most cordial nature. This is proved by the fact that a number of weddings already have taken place, and more than one American sailor has promised to return for the girl he must leave behind.

Queenstown has prospered greatly since the station was established here, but the people declare their regret in seeing the Americans depart is because they have become accustomed to their presence and like them for the fine young fellows they are.

White House Wedding Superstitions

1915

Mrs. Champ Clark, wife of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, writing of the White House wedding scheduled to take place Saturday, says:

"Concerning President Wilson and the Select Lady (predestined in the councils of eternity before the foundations of the world, that is, if Calvinism still holds good) to preside over the social destinies of the White House in 1916, this much is apparent: neither is superstitious. Else in selecting the date of their marriage they would not have run contrary to the marriage day proverb, which says:

"'Monday for health,
Tuesday for wealth.
Wednesday the best day of all;
Thursday for losses,
Friday for crosses,
Saturday no day at all.'

"I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Saturday leap forward into popularity among the list of wedding days out of compliment to the high contracting parties. For the influence of the bride-elect is already manifest in the beautiful 'Edith pinks' lavishly displayed in all the department stores.

"However, among Mr. Wilson's predecessors in office there were several who were superstitious, notably among them General Grant, who tells in his autobiography the story of his own wooing and how it was affected by his pet superstition.

"General Grant says be was brought up to regard it bad luck to stop or turn back after you had stopped any place until you had arrived at your destination. So when he received orders to go to the Mexican War he suddenly realized that he was very much interested in Miss Julia Dent. He was on leave of absence at the time, but he rushed back with all possible speed to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where he polished up his armor and brushed up his clothes and made himself as attractive as possible. Then mounting his horse he rode away, taking a bee line for Miss Julia Dent's house.

"Arrived at Gravoist Creek, a small, insignificant stream that ordinarily would not have had power to turn a coffee mill, he found it on the boom, out of its banks and making as much noise as the cataract of Lodore.

"But he was not to be stopped by a little old creek, even if it was on the rampage. So he plunged in and swam for dear life, the current carrying him down the stream, and if he had not been a country boy and used to meeting emergencies the story of Appomatox and its 'famous apple tree' would have had a different ending.

"As it was, he kept his own head and headed his horse persistently for the opposite bank. And got there safe and sound but wet to the skin and with no dry clothes on that side of the creek. However, he borrowed some clothes of his future brother-in-law, courted Miss Julia, was accepted, and four years afterward they were married and lived happily afterward, at least as much so as the circumstances would permit."

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 6. The publishing date of this paper is the same day President Wilson and Edith Galt were married.

"Silk Hats For Hire"

1910

Sign In Old Dickens' Quarters, London, Forced to Go Under Modern Pressure

London. — Among the landmarks of London that have disappeared of late are some old shops in Houghton street, Kingsway, the district that Dickens loved. The irruption of the house-breaker into this little thoroughfare has done more to disturb old buildings to make way for modern office blocks — it has displaced an old world little man, Christopher Clark, whose business for years has been one of the queerest in all London.

Till the London county council laid reforming hands on the dim little shop it bore in the window the notice:

Gentlemen's Silk Hats
Lent on Hire for Weddings
and Funerals.

The old man seemed strangely out of place in the daylight that had been let into that hitherto dingy bypath of the metropolis as he stood by the door a day or two before closing the shop for the last time and retiring as an old age pensioner. A big white apron enveloped his bent form and he peered suspiciously at the questioner who asked him how he fared.

Gradually, however, he thawed and admitted that he was eighty-four years old. "Certainly, I have had a good business. This used to be a good street for trade. Lawyers used to use it as a route to the courts, but all those changes are taking the life out of London. Folks now get underground like moles when they want to move about the city. And every messenger boy who wants to, sports a cheap tall hat.

"What sort of customers? Most respectable customers I have always had. If a silk hat was wanted for some special occasion I would supply a good one for a shilling a day — a hat no man could fail to be proud to go out in.

"A shilling a day, mark you" (the old man lovingly polished a shining specimen of his head gear with his sleeve), "and the hat to be returned to me in the condition in which it left the shop. Should a client require a hat for more than a day a reduction would be made. There was no fixed charge. There were times when a man positively had to have a silk hat, and — well, I was not too hard on the man whose fortune was small."

"No, trade latterly has not been always brisk. It has sometimes happened that more than a month has passed before a client has come in here to hire a hat, though sometimes I might have as many as four in a day. It used to be very different. Not even a funeral is conducted decently nowadays Everything is rush and tear."

And the old man sighed as he thought of the former days, when times were good and Londoners jogged comfortably along, with the silk hat as their badge of respectability on special occasions.

Changes in Weddings — Fewer Vows Made "To Obey"

1910

OMISSIONS AT THE ALTAR

Many Brides Who Now Refuse Make the Verbal Promise of Obedience

This year, as usual, some of the June brides got into the newspapers by refusing to make the verbal promise of obedience "till death us do part," as required by "The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony," specified in the Book of Common Prayer.

The full ceremony includes the exaction of a vow to "serve him," likewise, "so long as ye both shall live;" and it furthermore comprises several admonitions quoted from St. Paul and St. Peter, all to the one effect, wifely subjection. Any other point of view could hardly have been expected from spokesmen of the first century oriental community, particularly not from St. Peter, who himself was married, and who would, therefore, probably not have wished to upset an ancient, popular tradition no less convenient for his sex — than venerable.

Despite the eastern origin of its faith, the Christian world has managed to de-orientalize itself a good deal in nineteen hundred years, and the flavor of orientalism, which, quite naturally, attaches to the "Solemnization of Matrimony," is not now entirely to the taste of all western women — or men. But aren't the fair modern occidental Protestants rather illogical? They refuse to promise "to obey" a man for a single minute, although obedience is purely an act of volition, not requiring the smallest regard or respect for the person obeyed, or even acquaintance with him. On the other hand, the brides find it easy to swear "to love" a man forever, although love is a thing completely beyond control of the will!

Deign, if you please, Mesdames les Divorcees and others, to acknowledge that the great fundamental reason of marital discord, infelicity and wreck is the cessation of that feeling "to love," whose perpetual continuance it appears so very easy to pledge. Moreover, nobody ever alleges post-nuptial disinclination or even refusal "to obey" as a sufficient provocation for divorce. Of those two covenants, why object to the lightest? — Collier's.

Throwing Old Shoes After a Bride

1878

The slipper or shoe is popularly supposed to be thrown for good luck, and in some parts of Europe the custom is to throw it after sailors about to go on a voyage, and after all who enter on perilous enterprises, such as marriage.

A writer in Notes and Queries traces it back to the Hebrews, where it had a different meaning, symbolizing a transfer of authority or dominion. References to this custom may be found in Psalm ix, Psalm cix, and in Deut. xxv. He supposes that the receiving of a shoe was an evidence and symbol of asserting or accepting dominion or ownership; the giving back a shoe the symbol of rejecting, or resigning it. He thinks that originally the throwing of the shoe after the bride was a symbol that the father or guardian renounced his authority over her, and the receipt of the shoe by the bridegroom, even if accidental, was an omen that that authority was transferred to him. There is no doubt that such was sometimes the meaning of the transfer of a shoe.

It is related by a Danish poet that a Norwegian king in the eleventh to twelfth century, having conquered a portion of Ireland and Scotland, sent to Ireland his dirty shoes and commanded the king, who lived there, "to wear them with honor on Christmas day in his royal state, and to own that he had his power and kingdom from the Lord of Norway and the Isles." If such was the original meaning of shoe-throwing, it has now lost its significance. Instead of one shoe, a dozen or more are thrown, and in some countries wheat, rice, etc., accompany or take the place of old shoes. The supposed meaning to-day is that the shoe thrown after a newly-married couple will give them good luck.