Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1894-07-27
FOR THE FAIR SEX.
INTERESTING GOSSIP FOR THE
WOMEN.


Six Matrimonial stations for Levy
ing Tribute-Glasses Better Than
Sflver-The Bright Hride-The Dnin-
ty White Gown.
In these days Of universal wedding
gifts there are a variety of ways IN
which those who entered the holy state
of wedlock before that profitable fad
came in can catch up with the mod
ern recipient of substantial tokens of
good will, says the New York Mail.
Are wedding gifts real test of the
''esteem in which this popular young
couple are held?' Or is the custom
just neat order of blackmail, so deli
cately managed that one feels almost
brutal in giving it such an ugly name !?
But it does press GENEROUSLY on limited
salaries and slender purses.
Il wish people would stop inviting
me to weddings" I heard melan-
choly voice say the other day. Il just
cannot afford to go, and, Of course,
every one suspects why one stays away
If one always does. 1t is simply adyer-
tising ones poverty"
looked incredulous
'Oh, but it is, don't you know. One
cannot give wedding present that
costs less than So. And when one does
that he sinks away from the sight
of his poor little offering with a sense
of overwhelming disgrace or wishes he
could snatch it up and run away with
it. oh, have suffered, / can tell you.
And then, when ones friends will go
on getting married, perhaps at the rate
of five or six a month, one must either
make up his mind to go on Sinking
away from his shabby little testimon-
ials or stay away altogether. I have
concluded to do the latter"
Which, after all. has no bearing upon
what | started out to say about get
ting even with the present fad for we'd
ding gift giving There are six sta
tions along the great trunk line Of
matrimonial blessedness at which one
can halt and call for belated tribute
When you have been married five
years you call a halt at your wooden
wedding station and notify your friends
that you are going to observe the ami
versary. The result will be very salts
factory in the accumulation of chairs,
tables, rolling pins, hat racks-any ything
wooden, in short, that can convey the
idea Of your value in the eyes of your
many invited friends. When you have
been married five more years. round
your first decade by halt at the
wedding station. Issue invitations as
before and become the happy possess
or, on easy terms, of dozen or two
CRATES, tin cups, pattie pans, dippers,
etc. One can be utilitarian. but scarce
ly aesthetic, on the occasion of q tin
wedding.
The fifteenth anniversary of ones
marriage affords Il wider range for
the beautiful combined with the use
full. Then one has reached the crystal
wedding station, and if one is really
as popular as one always thinks she is
1t is delightful to contemplate all the
pretty glass things that will flow in a
steady stream to usward in response
to our notification that we have only
invited a few dear friends to be with
us on the happy occasion" etc, etc.
Twenty years after date-date, of
course, being the marriage day-we are
entitled to have our linen closet replen-
Of artistic needlework that woman
must be poor indeed in friends whose
linen wedding will not leave her much
better off in the way of lovely tray COW
ers, gorgeous bureau scarfs. center
pieces and countless other artistic com
binations of linen, silk floss and skilled
labor.
When one has been married twenty
five years one is entitled to solid sort
of recognition that can best be convey
ed in silver gobletS or tankards or
baskets, etc, etc, and while the whitl
sheen of the precious metal is threadiQ
the hair about our maturing tempt
we are in the happiest possible frAm
of mind to gather about us those. Wild
love us and mark the fifth station on
the great trunk line of our married
lives
One goes slower after that, slower
and slower and still more sloTly adown
Ghe hill we have climbed together in
fair weather and in foul There is an
other station. which mary stop short
of The golden wedding crowns a
period of fifty years q married life,
and though time will kaevitably have
heads of those who Adng after you the
mystic grains of rice, or who ''hearten-
ed" you at the journeys start with
benedictions and godspeeds, there will
always be found tho e of the third and
fourth generations to come with golden
gifts and honeyed speech, wishing you
many happy returns.
Occasionally, III the social history of
the world, a seventh station has been
reached. But rarely, ye-y rarely, does
the weary span of seyenty-five years Q<
union eyltitle one to the celebration
diamond wedding.