Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1875 — TALE OF TWO WEBBINGS. [ARTICLE]

TALE OF TWO WEBBINGS.

i. I was y^mg then, for the first wedding I am about to describe took place forty- ■ five years ago. I was toe minister’s wife, and my husband’s parish was in the northern part of the State of New York, just verging upon the Adirondack region. Our people were mainly simple, home-spun Scotch folk, and our church belonged to what was known as the “Seceder” persuasion. Many of the people talked the Gaelic, and all of them retained the Covenanter prejudice against hymn-singing and instrumental music in the house of God. On Sabbath the precentor stood in the little stall made for him beneath the pulpit, and, tuning-fork in hand, led off the Psalm, reading every two lines. Though all the people had books not all of them could read —and those who could would not have been willing to see the old ways forsaken and the reading of the line abolished. A little north of us was a colony of Dutch folk who had no regular settled minister as yet and were dependent on the missionaries sent out by the Dutch Reformed Church. These people came sometimes to our meeting and usually counted on my husband to attend their burials and perform the marriage ceremony at their weddings.

The winter of ’29 was very cold, and the deep snow lay upon the ground from October until nearly the first of May. One bright, moonlight but bitter cold evening, having finished my day’s work of housekeeping, mending and writing letters, and my husband having finished his work of sermon-writing and committing—oh! what a work it was to write a sermon an hour long every week and then commit it to memory!—-for our good Scotch folk would not listen to a read sermon—and having brought in the wood for the night and foddered the cow, we were sitting by the cheerful hickory fire, roasting apples and cracking nuts and talking over our affairs, when out ok the clear, frosty air broke the cry: “Halloo! Halloo the house!” “There’s somebody for me,” said my hushand, and, opening the door he answered: “Halloo! what do you want?” A team and big openT sleigh, or rather sled—for it had no sides—stood at the gate and a voice from it answered: “ Good evening, Dominie; I came down to get ye to ’tend a weddin* up in the ‘clips’ (cliffs). Jake Consall wants to jine Sally Ann Lihkumfilter, that lives down to ’Squire Houghtalin’s, and they want you to come and splice ’em—there’s a couple of dollars in it, sure. Will ye come?” “Aye, aye!” responded my husband, “I’ll be out in a few minutes.” Coming in,.his eyes twinkled with fun as he said: “I’ll warrant that fellow is the Yankee that has come up from Albany to teach the cliff school. He’s an eye to the main chance, too. Did you hear him clinch the invitation to go out this cold night with the prospect of a two-dollar fee ? Well, with a salary of only $506, and the baimie there to educate, every dollar helps.” The baimie was our baby-girl, about six months old, lying asleep in the cradle. “O Malcolm,” said I, “ask the man to come in while I change my dress anfi get ready. Do take me and the baby! I have never been to one of those Dutch weddings, and it is so lonely in this great, old house without you l” i( But, Susan, it is so cold, and the wee baimie—what’ll you do with her?” “ She isn’t undressed yet, and her slip is clean; I’ll wrap her up well and tuck her into my muff.” Well, of course he consented; and in ten minutes we were out on the sled, sitting down in the straw, and well covered with bear-skins and buffalo-robes. The muffs we wore in those days were very large—they’d be a curiosity now—and the baby was very small; so, as I promised, I tucked her into it and she slept all the seven miles. When we arrived, the guests were assembled ; sitting-room and graft kitchen full. The house, was an old-fashioned one, with four rooms on the first floor, with the same above, and over all a gteat garret. The sitting-room was furnished with old-style, plain mahogany furniture, straight-backed chairs, heavy tables and a great bureau nearly five feet high, ornamented with brass handles, mid almost as black as ebony with age. Brass fire-dogs, bright as rubbing could make them, reflected the objects around them; a bright fire glowed in the Ample fire-place, and on the floor was a home-made rag carpet. The kitchen was an immense,room, and had affre-piaee at each, end of it large enough to hold the

biggest back-log that might be cut in the primeval forests close at hand. From the oaken rafters overhead hung strings of onions, festoons of dried apples, long garlands of pumpkins, rides of bacon and brown hams. In one corner stood looms, and beside them a great spinning-wheel and a “JTenny.” The beds had been cleared away from one of the bedrooms on the first floor, and in it were set the tables toy the entertainment Loaded with cold roast turkey and chicken, mince and pumpkin pies, “ole kokes,” doughnuts, jumbles, plain cake, pound-cake, fruitcake, apples and nuts, they fairly groaned' under the weight of their hospitality. Boon after our arrival there was a little stir and clearing of space about the door that separated the kitchen from the sit ting-room, aryl the bridal party came in. The bride was young tad had the bright ruddy complexion so universal with the girls on those hills, living active, useful lives as they did. She was dressed in some soft material of worsted and silk; the short sleeves and four-inch bodice were dashed with blue, and she wore a blue sash, and blue morocco shoes with high heels. The groom was a stalwart, broad-shouldered young fellow, fine in homespun clothes and brass but tons. The Yankee schoolmaster and thd bridegroom’s sister were groomsman and bridesmaid. The marriage ceremony was short and simple. Then followed much kissing and many jokes, some not so remarkable for wit as a certain coarseness that passed for it. Supper followed, and great was the merriment when the bridesmaid drew the ring that had been put in the wedding-cake! After supper the table was cleared as by magic; the elders retired to the sitting-room and the hostess’ bedroom, where on the high-post bedstead, hung with blue checked curtains, slept my little baby, unconscious of all that was around her; of all that was before her. The young people had gathered in the kitchen and sapper-room, and soon the sound of their merriment came in to us, for though I was not yet twenty years old I was the minister’s wife and had to sit—much against my inclination—with the staid, old people. “Hunt the slipper” and kindred games were played with forfeits, and after a while there was a sort of lull, and then a scraping and twanging sound, and I knew the alarm for us to leaveihad sounded, for the fiddles were being tuned for the dance; and, sure enough, my good husband at once arose and said very gravely, “ Susan, I think we had better be going now.” Soon we were wrapped up, and baby, who opened her blue eyes only a minute, and stared about as if unable to decide whether this was a part of her dream or not, and then shut them again, was tucked once more into the great muff, and we accepted the invitation of one of our own deacons to ride home with him and his wife. “ Did you get the two dollars, Malcolm?” I asked, when we were again at our own hearthstone. “ Yes, indeed,” he answered, “ and another dollar beside, which the schoolmaster told me was for .making the ceremony so short. Old Dominie Van Horn, of Johnstown, who used to do the marrying, was wont to keep the poor creatures standing an hour and sometimes inore. The Yankee ‘reckoned’ I had tied ’em jest as fast in five minutes.” And the dear fellow put into my hand three silver dollars, saying, “ There, Susan, there is so much toward educating the wee baimie.”

I shall take little space to tell of wedding number two. lam old now—sixtyfive on Christmas Eve. Times have changed in forty-five years. A few weeks ago Malcolm—his hair is “ like the snow” now—and I came to the city to visit our daughter—the “wee baimie” whom 1 once carried in my muff. And last week we were invited to attend a wedding atone of the collegiate churches in Fifth avenue. The bride was the grand-daughter of the young ‘woman who was married that night, forty-five years ago, up in Montgomery County. What a contrast there was in the weddings and in the brides! This young girl, in her trailing satin dress, white as sheeted snow; her point D’Alencon flounces and wreath of real orange-blos-soms, was as pale as a lily, and her waist was so slender that I wondered how she had strength to carry the weight of her train. Ho roses save white ones bloomed on her cheeks/ No wonder! She never milked the sweet-breathed kine; she never carded wool and flax, and spun and wove, as her handsome grand, mother did. The wedding was a very grand one. From the church door to ttie sidewalk there was an awning, and the pavement was carpeted. There were six bridesmaids and groomsmen, and the church was filled with gaily-dressed people. The clergyman who married them wore a gown and read the service from a book. Then at the house there was a great display of flowers and presents, and the bride and groom, sorronnded by their attendants, stood in state for hours and received their friends; and wines and ices and wonderful confections were served; and after the guests had left, the bridal party went in a special train on their wedding tour. I suppose it is I who am wrong and that these changes are but necessaiy concomitants to the advance of wealth and culture, but it does seem to me that there was more heartiness, more realness in the did than in the new. WotScfii’t our girls have more red roses in their cheeks, more vigor in their frames, if we could go back to the simpler life of forty-five yews ago ? Would not we all be better mid happier ?—‘ ‘ Scotch Qranite,” in 2?. T. Observer. ThR hunt fbr Charlie Ross still. continues. No heart is so wicked that it does not feel a pang of sympathy for the poor lad’s parents, and the recovery of ►the boy would be gladly hailed by *?e*y household in America.