She Was Hungry

A Chinese wedding party in Cantón recently lost one of the most important items in the ceremony - the bride, says the North China Ilerald. The little lady had been carried to her bridegroom's home, hidden in the customary embroidered red satin chair decorated with flowers, and put down at the door to await the auspicious moment for crossing the threshold-. Her escort had come a long way and were weary, so they retired into a neighboring opium den and went to sleep. They awoke late in the evening, rushed to the door, and, concluding the bride had left, carried the empty chair ba-ck to its loft. Soon after the bridegroom and his family, dressed in their very best, lighted the candles and their incensé stie!:s, laid out rice and the orthodox viands, and opened the door. Na sign of either chair or brido. They immediately decided that she had been carried off b.y brigands, and alarmed tlie whole district, the search on fruitlessly. At last the distracted bridegroom woke up the chairbearers and they, struck by a sudden idea, ran off to the loft. They oponed the chair, and there sat the poor little brida, stiff. frightened and hungry. She had feit that she was being carried off, but d;;red not cry out, as no well-bred bride ought to open her llps till after the marriage ceremony. Henee all the trouble.