Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-08-27
A CURIOUS WEDDING GIFT.



The Donors Trademarks Conspicuously
Displayed
There was fine old gentleman in
this city-he died not many months ago
who from the humblest beginnings
made his way steadily up to commercial
fame and immense wealth, all by the
manufacture of soap" said a New
Yorker the other day, land with all his
wealth and prosperity he never forgot
how poor man feels or lost any of his
consideration for the rights of others.
Pride never pulled him up or made him
ashamed of his business or his early his
tory.
''He was proud of the purity and ex-
cellence of his soap, and the secret of
his success over his rivals lay in the fact
that he invented several processes for
cheapening the manufacture of that
article, and his great factory in this city
was full of machinery of his own inven-
ton and manufacture. He made one
ample fortune solely out of .patenting
the ideas of his fertile brain, and sever
al others by selling the manufactures
he was thus able to turn out.
His wife was as intensely purse
origin was as humble as his own, and
her daughter took after her. The child
married well, as they say, that is, a
young swell about town proposed to
her on account of the great wealth he
knew she would inherit. When the en-
gagement was settled the daughter
and mother asked the old man what he
was going to do in the way of setting
the young people up in life.
Here they ran up against an unex-
pected snag. The old boy would give
nothing in the way of a dowry. He
thought the bridegroom should
support his wife unaided till her
fathers will gave her share of
his estate. The utmost he could
be prevailed upon to do was to give
his daughter wedding present. What
this would be he steadfastly refused to
say just then. On the wedding day,
however, his gift to the bride was the
deed for a handsome house in fash
isnable street, completely furnished in
costly style from top to bottom.
'The bridal tour had all been ar
ranged, so no stop was made by the
happy pair to examine the house. All
! the pleasure they would have in going
| over the house, examining the pictures
| and the plate and entertaining their
| friends in it. Great was the delight
with which they entered their new
| home on their return. The carpets
| were velvet, the landings of silk and
! lace, the furniture hand carved. the
| pictures old masters, the linen of the
finest, and silver-plate was everywhere,
| even in the kitchen.
''The bridegroom was delighted, but
| the brides cheeks were crimson and
| her eyes flashed fire that tears could
not quench. Everywhere she looked
she saw familiar objects that filed her
with rage. Snatching heavy silver
salver from the table she showed to her
husband, engraved on it minutely. but
| with elaborate detail, the representa-
ton of a bar of soap with her fathers
! well-known trademark on it.
''This queer crest was everywhere
about the house, worked into carved
furniture, woven in the linen and hang
ings, and even painted on the carriage
and stamped on the harness which were
presented with the house. It was the
old mans greatest pride, that trade
mark and what it stood for. but whether
he had put it on his daughters things
out of sheer simplicity of heart or
whether he intended it as a rebuke to
her foolish pride I never found OUT
n. Y. Tribune.