Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1863-05-22
SILVER Is WAYS TIL e
CH AP e s. r.
By ELLEN ASHTON.

Now Mr. and Mrs. Aston were rich, and II
was no more to them therefore, 10 give a silver
tea service, than it would have been for most
Of us, for myself particularly, 20 give plain
china teapot.
aim not 50 sure, was Mr., Alston's answer,
that silver tea-service would be the best
Ellen is not rich neither is her intended hus-
band"
aThe more reason We should give the tea
service. They'll not get it for years if we
dent give it to them. And, as said before,
silver is always the cheapest. YOu can't break
il, and it never wears out"
It's very far from being the cheapest
Such tea-serviee as you would buy, would
cost, for instance, FIVE or six hundred dollars.
Now the interest on six huBdred dollars would
be thirty-six dollars every year, and would buy
new china service every year. Bat even a
china service would last five or six years So,
if the six hundred dollars we're invested FOR the
benefit Of Ellen, she would be able to buy a
new china tea-service every five or six years,
and have thirty-six dollars, yearly, to spend on
something else, for the four or five other
years"
" That's the way with you men," said Mrs
Alston. You are always talking Of invest
ments and interest But know as a woman,
that niece would rather have the silver tea
service than the money, and so | shall give it
to her."
" As you please my dear. You know I
leave all such things to you. The most I do
is to advise"
So the tea-serviee was given to the bride,
and when Mr.. Aston saw the unconcealed
pleasure with which his niece displayed it he
began to think his wife had been right after
ALL
And she was right as far as the present was
concerned Ellen was ten times happier, in
regarding the pretty silver tea-service, and in
behoIding the secret envy of her female ac-
uuaintances, than if the six hundred dollars
which il cost had been invested for her in the
safest securities.
But the present is net everything in life
temporary qualification is often bought at the
expense of future suffering. 1t was SO in Ellen's
case.
The young couple had not been long at
housekeeping before they discovered that there
was want of harmony between their silver
tea service and the china plates and tea-cups
which were used with it. The latter were but
ordinary china ware: not at all the things
for silver teapots," as Ellen said; and so fine
French porcelain was substituted. When this
had been done, the glass, which had been pres
sed glass, was soon found to be also out OF
place, and so cut glass was purchased. Then
the table-cloths were observed to be too coarse.
/" Elegant linen, fine china and cut glass ought
always to go together" remarked Ellen; and
her husband though not rich, loved pretty
things as we'll as his wife, consented 20 let her
purchase some exquisite damask table-eloths.
After this it was not long before the chairs
were seen to be too cheap an article, and then
the carpet, till finally nothing was left in the
dining room, which had been there originally
except the silver tea-service.
How is it, Ellen" said one of the brides
friends, one day, I" that your dinning room is
so much more elegant than the rest of your
house? always like to come here to tea
everything about your table is so refined and
choice"
Ellen had begun, before, to feel this want oi
harmony between her dining room and par
lour /; but from this hour she was positively un-
unhappy till she had begun to refurnish her par
lour. Her husband who was not without
sense and foresight trembled at these demands
on his purse, for he knew he could not afford
to take SO much money out. of his business
but Ellen's unhappiness in the end overcame
him and, besides, he trusted to make it up in
some other way. " We can save it out of the
household expenses, know" said Ellen and
he allowed himself to be persuaded.
But they never did save it. Their parlour
grew to be as tasteful as their dining-room
and by the same process for first a new car.
| pet was bought, and then new furniture, and
finally curtains were put up. "No room was
complete without" Ellen said, and Henkle
had such lovely silk rep so wonderfully cheap
Mirrors followed Then elegant vases and 8
clock for the maDtlepiece. And SO it went Oh
| Cor when the parlour had been entirely reftted
the bedrooms were discovered to be unworthy
of the rest of the house, and their improve
ment began. All this taxed the young hus
bands means to the utmost, in spite of Ellens
thrift in selling the old articles and buying
the new, as she persuaded herself she did d" al
a bargain
I'm afraid our niece is living too fast, sale
Mr.. Alston, one evening to his wife, Hel
husband wears a troubled look. They've now
been married three years, yet his credit is worse
to-day than before he came to see Ellen and
that ought never to be with married man
who has a rising family to support. They
threw out his note at the bank this morning
i in spite of all l could say"
"EIlen is too fond, I'm afraid, of fine lurni
ture," replied Mrs. Alston. "She ought tC
know that one should wait to be rich, before
indulging in silk curtains and velvet carpets"
Before another year the husband had failed
and the sheriff came to sell the fine furniture
All but the silver tea-service. That had beer
disposed of, it turned out, some weeks before
in desperate and, for the moment, a success
full attempt to pay large note and avert fail
ure.
al had the curiosity to trace its end" saiC
Mr. Alston, to his wife 1T was sold TO
! silver-smith and melted up. Of course il
brought hardly half of what it cost; that i
merely its weight in silver
sWhat shame !" cried the wife. II dom
know that shall ever forgive Ellen. To sac
rifice it so-and present too"
"Do you know, answered Mr.. Alston, ''tha
1 sometimes think we are the ones that ough
not to be forgiven? I'm very clear since I'v
? thought it all over, that our giving her tina
silver was the cause of all Elen's extrava
gance. It's favorite idea of yours, my deal
that silver is the cheapest thing young mar
ried people can have, but this is not the onl
case in which it has proved the dearest"