Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-08-20
CURIOUS WEDDING PRESEN
Did He Wish to Rebuke His Daughter or
was it His Simplicity.

Did He Wish to Rebuke His Daughter or
was it His Simplicity.
There was fine old gentleman in this
city-he died not many months ago-who
from the humblest beginning made his way
steadily up to commercial fame and i'm
mense wealth, all by the manufacture of
SOAP" said 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 nor
made him ashamed of his business or his
early history.
He was proud of the purity and excel
leDce of his soap, and the secret of his sue
cess 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 his
own invention and manufacture. He
made one ample fortune solely out of
patenting the ideas of his fertile brain,
and several others by selling the manu-
features he was thus able to turn out.
His wife was as intensely purse-pIoud
as he was simple, though her origin was
as humble as his own, and her daughter
took after her. This 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 engagement was settled the
daughter and mother asked the old man
what he was going to do in the wav 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 shape of dowry. He
thought the bridegroom should support
his wife unaided till her fathers will gave
her a share of his estate. The utmost he
could be prevailed upon to do was to give
his daughter a 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 a fashionable street,
completely furnished in costly style from
top to bottom:
THE bridal tour had all been arranged,
so no stop was made by the happy pair to
examine ne new house. All through the
honeymoon they talked of 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
we're velvet, the hangings 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 filled her with rage Snatch
ing heavy silver salve1 from the table,
she showed to her husband, engraved on
it minutely, but with elaborate detail, the
representation of bar of soap with her
fathers we'll known trademark on it.
This queer crest was everywhere about
the house, worked into carved furniture,
woven in the linen and hangings, and
even painted on the carriage and stamped
on the harness which were presented with
the house. 1t was the old mans greatest
pride, that trademark and what it stood
for, but whether he had it put on his
daughters things out of sheer simplicity
of heart, or whether he intended it as a
rebuke TO her foolish pride, never found
out. New York Tribune.