Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1894-04-05
FOR THE FAIR SEX.
MATTERS OF INTEREST TO THE
WOMEN.
English Society b Against Cost
ly Weddfngs-Has Rare Power Over
Horses-Dinner Gown and Spring
Hat-HOusehold Hints.

Among the changes that have char.
acterized the fashionable weddings in
England since the alteration Of the
canonical hours for such ceremonies,
perhaps the most important, from a
social point of view, is the Substitution
of a wedding reception for the old
fashioned heavy breakfast.
This survives in cercain homely class
e' of society, with its elaborate cold
collation., its number of guests strictly
limited to the seating capacity of the
available room, and the inevitable
speeches, without which, some years
ago, a wedding would hardly have been
considered legal.
1t was then considered necessary that
the health of the bride and bridegroom
should be proposed, the latter replying
in suitable terms for himself and his
wife, and the best man had then to
propose the health of the bridesmaids,
FOR whom some other unmarried man
was selected to respond.
Men who had never attempted a
speech of any kind before occasionally
found this a rather serious business,
and n that interfered considerably
with the enjoyment of the festive oc-
caSion. The afternoon reception is free
from all necessity for spacchmaking,
anything of the sort that is undertaken
being purely voluntary.
Fathers of families have long been
complaining of the enormous cost of
their daughters weddings, says the
London Daily Telegraph, and this is a
matter in which they compare unfav.
orably with other nations.
America and Australia, following
English customs, are not only included
in the indictment, however, but appear
to be inclined to out-Herod Herod In
h item Of costly expenditure. To
make a ''Splurge," a Transatlantic ex-
preston for an o~stentatious display,
seems to be more thought of than com
fortably starting the young couple in
the world. Personal journalism is in
some degree responsible for this.
In England we have the two great
extremes of wealth and poverty, and
the inclination to run up the cost of
all social entertainments bears hardly
upon those whose a are limited.
1t would be difficult to estimate the
number of British families who are
pinched and narrowed in really imDor-
tant matters owing to the prevalence
of the weddings, money must be freely
spent in sums out of all proportion to
the income.
1t Is time that this should be looked
in the face and that social refOrmers
should consider ways and means of
simplifying matters. In some direc-
tons, it is true, details are less ex.
pensive than they were ten years ago,
but looked at ia the aggregate the TX
penses of a fashionable wedding are
decidedly on the increase all around.
Whereas forty or fifty friends Of the
family were once entertained at an
elaborate ~''breakfast' at a cost of
from fifteen shiilings per guest, a couple
of hundred acquaintance are now sum-
:nOned to the afternoon reception, with
a financial result that out at
much the same figure.
Floral decorations are more extensive
than they used to be, and the bride
groom who is marrying into a middle
class family is now put to as much ex-
penSe as would, twenty years ago,
have been considered sufficient for the
son of a wealthy and aristocratic house.
He has TO give each bridesmaid a pres
ent of jewelry and a handsome hou-
Quet.
His fiancee expects a costly engage
ment ring in addition TO other presents,
ard is disappointed if the places for
the honeymoon do not include Il trip
to Paris at least. The entice scale has
been enlarged Of late and will go ON
increasing, to the embarras 'mcnt of
many q hard worked and Iver-weighted
father in times when money seems to
De getting scarcer and more difficult TO
earn.
Why should not the reform begin
with the girls Of England, the brides
themselves? Our girls now take much
broader views on many subjects than
they did some twenty ,ears ago and
much may be hoped from their increas-
ing common sense. AS ii Is, there
are many changes for the better in some
directions.
Brides are more matter Of fact than
once they were. The weeping, fainting,
trembling sensitive creatures who af-
fiicted their friends in the days when
sensibility was In fashion, are now re-
placed by the comfortable girl, who
addresses her newly-made husband as
"Old boy!!' and bids goodbye to her
father with a sounding slap on the
back. If her heart trembles a little
in taking leave Of her girihood's home,
she takes no one into her confidence
on the subject, and Is wise In her reti-
cence. She very possibly gives the
impression of being harder than she
really is, but she Is only copying her
brothers ideal of manly fortitude, as
girls will nowadays.
There are symptoms of revolt against
the orthodox white satin and orange
blossoms, even among brides whose So
cial position entities them to be accus-
toned to the wearing of costly fabrics.
Has Rare Power Over Horses.
Almost ever since she could walk
Mrs. Rolin M. Squire, wife of the
former city commissioner Of New York
has been accustomed to equestrian *
ercise, and now, at 80 years Of age,
there are few living women who have
a firmer seat in the saddle than she.
One. of the first things she rode was the
knee of her future husband, who is
considerably her senior. Mr.. Squire
was law partner OF her father when
Graca Nuttpr WAS a fiddler