Discussions

The Wedding’s season is just starting this season in Brandon, and they of course are a large part of religious ministrations, though they do not always occur in an atmosphere of ecclesiastical solemnity. Hotels in this respect were, in a way, antechambers of the church, because they became a sort of rialto of courtship. Hotels were about the only places where a young man from the plains could speak to a young woman, principally those who waited on the dining room tables.  
 
It was not a singular thing for a couple to meet, perhaps at dinner, and be engaged by evening. There were cases in which a man had not enough money to travel back east for his Sweetheart: and others wherein a girl came to marry a man for whom, at renewed sight, her affection disappeared. Not all romances occurred around the local Hotel.  
 
Two lovers quarreled in the “Old Country”. After which the young gentleman emigrated to Western Canada, and took up land outside of Brandon, and kept a bachelors hall for several years. As far as his neighbors knew, he was a confirmed bachelor who cared nothing for feminine society. One spring this bachelor heard of a neighbor a few miles away who had good seed wheat to sell, and thought he would drive over and buy some. He met the neighbor out doors, and found that the wheat was not cleaned. However he bought a load and agreed to help clean it. By the time the seed had been passed over the mill, bagged and loaded on to the wagon, it was late after noon so the neighbor asked him to stay for dinner.  
 
At first he hesitated, not being used to the company of women. Besides he was in his work coveralls. Still it would be late by the time he got home and so to save time cooking his own belated dinner at his own house, he decided to accept the offer. While they were feeding the horses, their conversation drifted to where they each had come from. They hailed from the same area in Scotland.  
 
When the two farmers were ready to sit down at the table, a young woman visitor to the house appeared from an adjoining room. The introductions were unnecessary because she was the girl he had quarreled with before in Scotland and left years before. The bachelor arrived home very late that night, but he and the girl had planned their nuptial day. They were not the first marriage in Brandon.  
 
The first marriage was provoked by an offer by the municipal council of a building Lot to the first bride and groom. This led to rumors for some time, which amounted to nothing. Finally an announcement for an arranged marriage between a Mr, Robins and a woman named English Nell. No questions were asked as to whether it was a love match, but most folks agreed it was mainly to get their hands on the city Lot.  
 
The news of the wedding spread very fast through the tented town, and most of the boys were anxious to see the fun. The wedding was scheduled to take place in Barton’s City Hotel. The Best Man was a Dutchman who ran a barbershop. When approaching the Minister the bridal party some how got mixed up and the Best man stood next to the Bride. The minister laid hands on their shoulders with the intention of having them step forward a little. The Dutch barber looked up and saw at once that he was in the wrong place, and as the minister touched him, he said vehemently: “Not by a damned sight”. The right man came forward and the ceremony was performed. The congregation began to sing: “The animals came in two by two”, and “One more river to cross.” The congregation followed the newly weds to the Lot, across the river, where the city council delivered the certificate of title to Mr. And Mrs. Robins.  
 
Later a foreign coupled called on the same minister, taking with them a large block of soap. The minister said he did not care to take the soap for his fee, and indicated that it would not be enough soap to cover the cost of the wedding. The bride spoke up: “Marry us, anyway, or as far as the soap will go.”  
 
Except from the reprint of the book: A Horseman and the West by Beecham Trotter, first published 1925.