Something Old

The marriage avowals by which, at Chicago, June 6, M. M. Mangasarian, the eminent Rationalist lecturer, became the husband of Miss Mary E. Glendon, and she his wife, were prepared by the bridegroom, who, standing before the bride, said:

Mary Edna Glendon, in the presence of Judge Brentano, representing the state of Illinois, and these witnesses, who are our friends, I desire that they and the whole world should know that I love you, and am here now to take you for my lawful wedded wife. I promise to be a faithful, loyal friend and husband to you. It will be my greatest happiness to honor, cherish, protect you, and to give you my undivided affection every day of our married life.

Give me your love, and we shall live devoted to each other and both to the highest ends of life, which, as Goethe has defined, are the good, the true, the beautiful.

Miss Glendon responded:

Mangasar Mugurditch Mangasarian — Even as you love me I love you, and in the presence of Judge Brentano and our mutual friends I promise to be your faithful, loyal, loving wife. I will honor, cherish, and care for you every day of our married life and give to you my undivided love.

Mr. Mangasarian resumed:

And now that we have each made this public profession of our love for each other, let me place upon the fourth finger of your left hand, the hand nearest your heart, this ring as a pledge that I will perform the vows I have today assumed. Do you accept this ring in token of the same?

\I do,\ Miss Glendon responded.

\And may this ring always remind you and me of this wonderful day and hour when I was permitted to call you wife.\

\And I to call you husband.\

\For the first time,\ they repeated together, with hands clasped.

No questions were asked by Judge Brentano, who officiated in behalf of the state, but when the avowals and pledges had been made by the contracting parties, he said:

Inasmuch as you, Mr. Mangasarian, have expressed your desire to take Miss Glendon for your lawful wedded wife, and have promised to love, honor, cherish, and protect her in all the alterations and vicissitudes of life, and inasmuch as you, Miss Glendon, have agreed to take Mr. Mangasarian for your lawful, wedded husband, and have promised to love, honor, cherish, and care for him in health and in sickness, in prosperity and in adversity, and have confirmed the same by the giving and the receiving of a ring, I do, therefore, now by virtue of the authority vested in me by the state of Illinois and in the presence of these witnesses, pronounce you husband and wife, and wish you both much happiness and good fortune in your new relations.

The ceremony satisfies the head and the heart and the state — a great advance on the commonplaces of the church ritual — \I take thee to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor and obey, till death do us part\ — impossible promises not kept or intended to be. A marriage ceremony is a guarantee of good faith and of good intentions at the time.