he civil marriage, to make sure
that the newly made husband and wife do not leave together to go to
church. Sometimes an artisan will wait a fortnight after the civil
ceremony before he ventures to have the religious one. Every artisan
in Berlin has to belong to the _Sozialdemokratischer Verband_, because
if he did not his fellow-workmen would destroy his tools and ruin his
chances of work. Apparently they interfere with his private affairs as
well.

The marriage service is not to be found in the prayer-book Germans
take to church, but I have both read it and listened to it. The vows
made are much the same as here; but in Germany great importance is
attached to the homily or marriage sermon. This is often long and
heavy. I have heard the pastor preach to the young couple for nearly
half an hour about their duties, and especially about the wife's duty
of submission and obedience. His victims were kept standing before him
the whole time, and the poor little bride was shaking from head to
foot with nervousness and excitement. In some cities the carriage used
by a well-to-do bride and bridegroom is as big as a royal coach, and
upholstered with white satin, and on the wedding day decorated inside
and out with garlands of flowers. The bridegroom fetches his bride in
this coach, and enters the church with her. When a pretty popular girl
gets married all her admirers send flowers to the church to decorate
it. The bride and bridegroom exchange rings, for in Germany men as
well as women wear a plain gold wedding ring, and it is always worn on
the right hand. The bridegroom and all the male guests wear evening
dress and silk hats. The women wear evening clothes too, and no hats.
The bride wears the conventional white silk or satin and a white veil,
but her wreath must be partly of myrtle, for in Germany myrtle is the
bride's emblem.

After the wedding dinner the bride slips away unnoticed and changes
her gown, and is presently joined by the bridegroom, but not by any of
the guests. No rice and no old slippers are thrown in Germany, and no
crowd of friends assembles to see the young pair start. The bride bids
her parents farewell, and slips away with her husband unseen and
unattended. After the wedding dinner there is often dancing and music.

A hundred years ago wedding festivities lasted for many days after the
wedding, and the bride and bridegroom did not go till they were over.
When the celebrated and much married Caroline S