The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1889-01-25
DAYS TO REMEMBER.
Appropriate Offerings for the Dincren
Wedding Anniversaries.

N00A Va hSANC IN - -
couple TO a wooden wedding, ton years
to a tin wedding, at fifteen the crystal
wedding. at twenty q china wedding.
and then there is a long jump ahead
and at fifty years the event is called
a golden wedding. Should an aged
couple live seventy-five years they
would have a right to their
diamond wedding. Some persons state
that other anniversaries Of marriage
have Il right to gifts of certain things,
and as the whole idea is a sort or re-
ward of merit system, it might be as
well to enumerate them. The first
year they call q cotton wedding; the
second a paper wedding; the third
leather; the fourth is Of no account at
all and has no right nor title to any
name or remembrance; and SO, too,
they think of the sixth; but the
seventh is the wooden wedding and the
twelfth the silk. Somebody has sug-
gested hat the thirtieth anniversary
might be honored with gifts of pearls
and the fortieth with rubies, but no
one has done it as yet. Where the
custom arose is surmised to be with
the Germans, who delight in frequent
opportunities of making little gifts;
where it was elaborated into costly
presents must have been in America,
for no other race so completely gauges
things by a moneyed value. The Ger
are satisfied with sending, eve
as Il silver wedding present. a simple
card three or four inches square
embossed with q silver wreath, while
the Americans try to vie with the donors
of the silver falcons, vases, cups, salt
cellars, etc, which were showered on
the Prince and Princess of Wales last
month. So far has the thing peer ear
ried that delicate minded persons de-
string to celebrate such an occasion by
entertaining their friends cause a line
to be engraved on their cards of in
vitation: mo presents received"
When presents of any kind become
merely ostentatious displays they
cease to be a proof of affection and be-
come merely a demonstration of the
wealth of the giyer.
Still, If n accepts an invitation to
reception of this kind called a we'd
ding he should send some sort of Il
token appropriately chosen, unless
prohibited as above, for what makes a
wooden wedding or a silver wedding
except these gifts? When the line APP
pears the party ceases to be a tin or
crystal wedding, and becomes u eel
ebration in honor of the date of a mar
riage.
A beautiful custom, and one that
keeps the day in honor, is for a wife to
wear her wedding dress on these days.
1t may not be much of an event for the
first few years. but after ten or fifteen
it becomes a sacred memory. Ii brings
the husband and wife, grown matter
of-fact in this matter-of-fact world,
near together, softens their hearts and
sends them back to their youth once
more. 1t rouses all the love and rev.
erence in the hearts of children as they
90 on in years, and delights them in
their early childhood. II the party be
but a family one, the white robe is not
100 elaborate for the occasion. Women
who change in figure make as
little alteration in the dress as possible.
If the wedding-dress is not in existence
some little article worn on the mar
riage day is usually worn or carried
on the anniversary, q fan, a handker-
chief, or Il bis of jewelry. On the ear
lier anniversaries there is often some
of the wedding cake which has been
kept for such events. OF course, tin
and wooden weddings are merely sig
nails for regular frolic, and the friends
ransack their brains to invent some
fantastic gift. Tin horns and wooden
shoes, the openings filled with flowers,
are often sent and tin watches and wire
e~gg-beaters tied up with ribbon bows.
Usually the kitchen shelves are nicely
~replenished ON these occasions, though
nowadays the wooden wedding may
become a very splendid affair-carv-
ings in wood in any form being SO much
desired.
Flowers are apt TO be literally show
cred on the couple on these happy
days, and the husband, no matter how
poor or how busy, who does not come
home to his wife with a little nosegay
in his hands deserves-well, u disap-
pointed glance. Invitations for such
affairs do not differ from others except
in having two dates inscribed at the
two upper or lower corners. The
usual wording for an cat home" is suit
able. Some persons issue them on
material emblematical of the occasion.
A reply should be made us promptly
as possible.-Chicago Herald.