The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1878-05-16
ALL ABOUT WEDDING FEES.

Cfcr0u'nen Tho ReceiUc Much a. Sc 900
q Year tor Tying the Ntptial Knot---The
Districts i" Witch the Big Fees are Paid.
New York SUM-
In New York, where marriages form a
very important part of the clergy's functions,
wedding fees are looked after with especial
solicitude. If clergyman be popular, ge-
nial, and of good social standing, his fees
| often form large item of his income. The
cream of the marriages in HIGH life usually
fall to the share of the Protestant Episcopal
and Presbyterian ministers, since those two
denominations embrace the wealth.
est part of tho church-going COM
n1unity. The Episcopal marriage service,
with its ring accompaniment, fine music, and
poetic and historic attractions; is generally
preferred by those who desire to be welded in
style, and to start in life under fashionable
auspices. The rectors of this denomina-
tons hundred or more churches probably
reap larger revenue in this respect than
| those of any other denomination, with one
possible exception. Fees of $50, $50, and
500 are not uncommon, while on occasions
where the Bishop or some other dignitary of
the church is called in, they reach $500. In
the poorer parishes on tho east and west
sides the amount shrinks to 81. SIS, and
even S.. AS rule, well-to-do Episcopa-
liens pay larger fees than others.
Next to the Episcopalians in this respect
come the Catholics. Strictly speaking, priests
are forbidden to take money for such ser
vices-that is. they are requested not to sell
the sacrament custom sanctions gratu-
ity or Offering, the size of which is according
to the ability of the giver. AS class Catho-
lies arc more prompt and liberal than the av-
of 80 -
ordinarily given. Even poor mechanics pay
as high as S.. Where the parties are evil
IDENTIFY too poor to meet such an expense,
the priest often declines taking anything.
After the Catholics arc Methodists, Baptists,
Congregationalists, and other Protestant de-
nominations in the order of their numbers
and wealth. Fees of SIS, $40 aud $50 are
those most commonly given. thelatter being
the limit usually reached by tho well-to-do
but not wealthy class.
Hebrews contribute literally, and a rabbi
with an average congregation rarely gets
less than $40 or 500, and often $50, 800,
and $3.50.
The largest fees are paid in the district
bounded on the east of Fourth avenue, on
the south by Fourteenth street, on the west
by Sixth avenue. and on the north by Gen.
tral park. In this narrow strip, more than
two miles long, by third of mile wide, q
fee of $50 is considered ordinary, and one
of 500 ''from fair to middling." In we'd
dings attended by great eclat the amount
sometimes reaches $500, though this is only
when bishop or cardinal is called in.
The wealthy dwellers about Gramercy
park are very good payers, as are those of
Second avenue, from Eighth street to Twe1l
tieth, while the long and solid blocks of
brown stone about Stuyvesant square are
highly remunerative to the neighboring pas
tors.
More fees are paid on the east side than
on the west side, and more north of Four
teenth street than south of it. It is q little
singular that the proportionate size of the
see decreases on an average ratio with the
wealth of the contracting parties. Thus a
man with $4,000 would rarely think of
rendering less than $40; while man worth
$780, 900 would consider 500 ample. A
clergyman of twenty years experience thinks
that one per cent. of the groom's income
of $1,000 per year is willing to pay $40, but
one with five times as much would decidedly
object to giving $780,
| But many persons get married without
paying any fee. An Episcopal rector on the
east side says that in ten years of ministry
he has married over one hundred couples
many of them well to do. and some even
wealthy, who have not paid him one cent
In number of instances the parties have
called in carriages, with the usual accom-
paniments of silks, bouquets, and costly at
tire, been pronounced man and wife, and
gone away without leaving the pastoral
treasury one cent the richer. In one case
the groom was man of exceedingly fash
ionable appearance, with wealthy con.
nections, and of acknowledged social
standing. The rector and the de-
faulting groom still meet frequently
in society, but not suspicion seems to dawn
across the mind of the latter that he is still
his PASTORS debtor. "A Roman Catholic
clergyman in one of the most populous par
ishes, says that he has married hundreds OF
couples who gave him nothing, although 9
large proportion of them were evidently
able to pay handsomely. Some of them
promised to t'call aud settle in few days.
others excused themselves by saying they
chad no change with them;'' and still other
walked off without word of explanation.
The rabbi of prosperous synagogue sale
that he meets almost every day we'll dressed
young men whom he has married, and wht
have not paid.
Clergymen of all denominations are unan