Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 151, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1910 — A Singgular Marriage Custom. [ARTICLE]

A Singgular Marriage Custom.

The Kurds have a very curious and somewhat dangerous marriage custom, which one wquld think would be more honored In the breach than in the observance. The husband, surrounded by a bodyguard of twenty or thirty' young men, carries his wife home on his back in a scarlet cloth and Is desperately assaulted the whole way by a number of girls. Sticks and stones are hurled at the bridegroom, who In the coming home with his bride can hardly be considered a very happy man, for the irate amazons often lnflist on him marks which he carries to the grave. It may be that among the lady pursuers are some of the bridegroom’s former “flames,” who turn the mock attack into downright earnest to avenge slighted love.

There were 28,947 persons in the federal employ in Washington on July 1 last; the annual pay roll for them is 131,541,225, an average of nearly 11,100 each. Do not regard the flea with great contempt; it is about the only creature which gets any work out of a dog.