The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1893-04-29
A CURIOUS WEDDING PRESENT.
Did tho Merchant wish to Rebuke Hi
DauRhter. or Was IL HIn GIN nIInItuo


Did tho Merchant Wish to Rebuke His
Daughter, or Was II His Simplicity?
There was fine old gentleman in
this city, who from the humblest begin
nings made his way steadily up to com.
mercial fame and immense wealth. all
by the manufacture Of SOAP said a New
Yorker the other day, "and 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 puffed him up nor made
him ashamed Of his business or his early
history.
He was proud Of the purity and ex-
eellence 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 arti-
Gle, 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 several
others by selling the manufactures he
was thus able to turn out.
"His wife was as intensely purse proud
as he was simple, though her origin was
as simple as his own, and her daughter
took after her. This child married well.
as they say; that is, 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 ne 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 ut
most he could be prevailed upon to do
was to give his daughter wedding
present. What this would be he stead
fastly refused to say just then. On the
wedding day, however, his gift to the
bride was the deed for handsome house
In fashionable street, completely fur
nlshed in costly style from top to bottom
"The bridal tour had all been arranged.
80 no stop was made Dy the happy pair
to examine the new house. All through
the honeymoon they talked of the pleas
ure they would have in going over the
house, examining the pictures and plate
and entertaining their friends in it.
Great was the delight with which they
their new home on their return.
The carpets were velvet, the hangings of
silk and lace, the furniture hand carved.
the pictures old masters, the linen of the
finest, and silverplate 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 was
familiar objects that filled her with rage.
Snatching heavy silver salver from the
table, she showed to her husband, en-
graved on it minutely but with elaborate
detail, the representation of a bar of
soap with her fathers we'll known trade
mark on it.
This queer crest was everywhere
about the house, worked into carved
furniture, woven in the linen and hang
ngs, and even painted on the carriage
md stamped on the harness which were
presented with the house. It was the
I'D mans greatest pride, that trademark
md what it stood for, but whether he
lad 1t put on his daughters things out
u sheer simplicity of heart or whether
le intended it as rebuke to her foolish
'ride never found out. New York
Tribune.