Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1868-08-07
Fashionable Weddings.


that the twain about to become one flesh
love each other utterly. They are the
new Adam and the new Eve, for whom
the world is this day born. Life itself
is sacrament, marriage a beatitude, the
holy of holies. Shall these two pure and
earnest souls say, "Go to, now, let us
ring bells, and beat goings, and cry out
to the world, Come and see how we turn
this miricle of love and choice into q
spectacle of tinsel and gauds. Come and
hear us tell the dearest experience of our
lives -? Yet they do it, simple souls, be-
cause it is expected. They do another
thing as ill-bred. they set forth the we'd
ding 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 day-so new and changed
is her future. You hope she viii be hap
py; 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 Won
der whether it cost as much as hers. You
do not send it to have il regarded as the
measure of your lean and low ability"
by the dear five hundred friends of the
bride; and when it is SO used, if you have
any delcacy 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 vul-
garity. If the gifts were to be shown,
this one must give, and that one, not be-
cause her heart moved her-not because
her purse permitted, but because her of
fering must not be absent. And now,
every fashionable wedding is public ex-
tortion, a deliberate tax-levy on the
friends of the bride, to be paid in silver
spoons and butter-dishes. One of the
sweetest girls know told me that she
asked such and such people to her we'd
ding-vulgar, miserable acquaintance
as they were-because she knew they
would give her presents. Indeed, she
confessed, without the slightest shame
facedness, that she gave wedding on
account of the tariff system. I" 1t will
be such a help toward housekeeping" she
strikingly remarked. 1t is anincredible
fact that wedding presents are hired from
the jewellers, and labeled with the name
of suppositious relatives, to make up the
melancholy display. 1t is horrible Sc
quence that policeman should be placed
on guard over the laden tables during the
reception. No rcprobation could be SC
severe as the statement of the fact.
o, girls are you the children of Rev
olutionary mothers? Are you daughters
and sisters, and sweethearts of men who
fought our later battles, and found life
other than joke and sham? p? Are you
akin to the women who upheld theil
hands, and nursed them, living, and bu
ried them, dead, and can you make youl
daily lives a wretched pretense, from
maidenhood to death?
If you love man with heart and soul
marry him, provided, of course, that hi
loves you and asks you.) But let you
marriage be simple and quiet, and beau
tiful with love, but not with money. |
you are rich, do this in the name o
grace, and for the sake of example. /
you are poor, do it in the name of hon
esty, and for the sake of pure consci
ence. And in either event, do it as al
offering to delicacy and the fitness Q
things.
If you have wedding presents, the
most of them will come because the civ
ers love you, and, loving, desire to Civ
the gifts of love. Treasure them sacred
ly, but on the wedding-day send them
the bank, or hide them in the back atti
or push them under the bed, or putthel
in the refrigerator, or do anything, b'
shake them in the face of the public, an
say: Behold how blessed am l with N
rattle, how tickled with my straw"
S LUCIA G. CALHOUN.