Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1868-05-15

impI1eQ In SUCH al CstiGldtos
In the new household, as in the old,
there will be pinching in the real needs
to supply the unreal. Books and How
ers and travel will be too costly, but
dressmaker's and tailor's bills must be
met. Life will narrow to petty issues
children will grow up, taught by eT-
amDIes of pettiness, to be petty, as no
precepts of largeness could ever teach
them to be large. And so the evil is
entaiIed, terrible legacy to coming
generations.
But fashionable wedding need not
produce hollow life, you think, ex'
pectant bride? Ten TO one it will. AS
the girl starts on her new life she feels
bound by the stern code of society to
continue, Satin on her wedding day
ushers in a train of silk for all the days
of her life. and silk, In these days, is
expensive; and all the men whom 4
know anything about brood and worry
over the price of living, and the chit
dren's future. And when the husband
worries, the wife frets, or snubs him.
or. at best, carries heavy burden OF
care, and all the sunshine OF the morn
| ing fades. Don't imagine that think
most of the happiness of marriage llfe
comes from the vanity of wives. do
know that very much of it is born OF
the constant struggle between a reality
of nsrrowness and a seeing of wealth
not in dress alone, but in houses, IN
furniture, Ia dinners, in wines, In CT
CARS, In all the details of expenditure.
| Mean cares rasp the sweetest temper.
Souls are born for better things than
scrutinizing wash-bills, and calculating
how the third turning OF a silk dress
can be concealed by hounces. An IL
ritable temper sovs discord as dragons
teeth, and they spring up armed fiends
of disagreement, recrimination, wretch
edness, By and by Florinda and Adolf
phus talk of separate maintenance, or
worse still, live on liz this terrible das-
lity, which has no element of unity.
And what shall be said of the vulgar
ity of fashionable weddings? Let ms,
by a hne fight of the Imagination, be-
| lieve that the twain about TO become
one flesh love each other utterly. To
each the world revolves about the
other. To each suns rise and set be-
cause the other lives. They are the
new Adam and the new Eve, for whom
the world is this day born. Life itself
is sacrament, marriage beatitude,
the holy of holes. Shall these two
pure and earnest souls say, $50 TO nov
let us ring bells, and beat gongs, and
cry out TO the world, Come AID see
how we turn this miracle of love and
choice into a spectacle OF tinsel and
gauds. Come and hear US tell the
dearest experience of our lives?" Yet
they do il, simple souls, because 1t IS
expected. They do another thing as
ill bred. They set forth the wedding
presents to be gazed at.
Now the custom of giving wedding
presents is, in itself, beautiful. Your
friend is, as it were, born again on this
her wedding dsy-so new and changed
is her future. You hope she will be
happy; you hope that she will never
forget you, and your tenderness for
her. and you send her some dainty gift,
whose beauty shall delight her-whose
daily presence shall sweetly remind her
of YOU. You do not send it that Mrs.
Smith may wonder whether it cost as
! much as hers. You do not send it TO
have it regarded as the measure of your
clean, and low ability" by the dear,
five hundred friends of the bride; and
when it is so u,ei, if you have any d /.
icacy within you, you are panied and
surprised. Somebody in an evil hour
once showed her bridal presents, and
then the pretty custom at once became
vulgarity. If the gifts were to be
shown, this ore must give, and that
one, not because her heart moved her
not because her purse permitted, but
because her Offering must not be alb
sent. And now, every fashionable we'd
ding is a polite extoration, deliberate
tsx-levy on the friends of the bride, to
be paid ia silver spoons and butter
dishes. One of the sweetest girls l
know told me that she asked such and
such people to her wedding vulgar,
miserable acquaintance as they were
because she knew they would give
her presents. Indeed, she confessed,
without the slightest shSme-facedness
that she gave wedding on account of
the tariff system. sit will be such a
help toward house keeping" she strik-
iugly remarked. Why, the Queen il
Hamlet was a miracle of delIcaey and
propriety compared with these rampa-
CiOue lOuIS NOLuCBs dHu VIC AuhGIdt@
baked meats that coldly furnished forth
the marriage table, were less hollow
feast than the wedding breakfasts of
to-day. It is an incredible fact that
weddIng-presents are hired from the
jewelers.. and labelled with the names
of suggestions relatives, to make up
the melancholy display 1t is hor-
rible sequences that policemen should
be placed on guard over the laden Ia
bles during The reception. No reproba-
ton could be so severe as the statement
of the fact
o, girls! are you children Of RevoIu-
tionary mothers? Are you daughters,
and sisters, and sweethearts of men
who fought our later battles, and found
life other than joke and sham? Are
you akin to the women who upheld
their hands, and nursed them, living,
and buried them dead. and can you
make your daily lives wretched pre-
tense from maidenhood to death2
If you lovo man with heart and
soul, marry him, provided, of course,
that he loves you and asks you.) II
you don't love him, don't marry MIN,
though you die an old maid at ninety
IN the Asylum for INDECENT Old Maids,
about to be established in Boston. But
let your marriage be simple, and quiet,
and beautiful with love, but not with
money. If you are rich, do this in the
name of grace, and for the sake of ex-
ample. LII Won ara DOOR do IL in the