The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-26
WEDDING CUSTOMS.
Things That May Prove Interesting
to Posterity.
WASHINGTON Times.)

(WaSn1ngt0n T1meS.)
Future generations may look back
with considerable amusement on GER
tain social customs of the present day.
They will wonder why, to promote So
cial intercourse, a man should feel
obliged to put on a stiff, high collar
and a pair of narrow-toed shoes, and
prance forth to spend an evening eat
| ing ices, which he does not want,
; dancing the german with women who
do not interest him, and staying up till
in the morning, when he must be at
| his office at a. M, and desires ardent
| ly to be in bed. They will wonder why
women spend small fortunes in keeping
up with changing, erratic, and largely
unbecoming fashions, when society
might be much more picturesque II
each woman chose her own style and
kept to it, They will examine with in
tereSt the elaborate dinner services OF
the present day, in which there ar LOO
little silver things which need to be
catalogued before the old-fashioned
person can tell what they are to be
used for. They will wonder why we
mingle Greek, German, French and
English art in one wild tumble in our
furniture and decorative designs, ana
why there are stern gradationS IN So
ciety which prevent people thoroughly
sympathetic and congenial from coming
into contact, condemning them, instead,
to association with those who are un-
interesting and tiresome to them. 1t
will take them a long time to figure
out the causes of all these social phe-
nomena.
There are hundreds of customs in any
society, handed down by tradition ana
kept in force through habit rather than
reason. But in simpler civilizations
these customs are apt to mean some
thing, TO be connected with beautiful,
pathetic, or poetic incidents. Such are
the folk games and dances of European
nations. But society's gambols rarely
have-any such history as that. We have
lost the stateliness of the old-fasnioned
society, without, as yet, attaining the
simplicity and freedom of the new
A good example of the way in which
some of the old-time social customs
have been elaborated in a Phiiistine
fashion till thew have lost all their
beauty is found in one of the recent
fashion papers. II is suggested that the
bridal bouquet for the coming season
will have, in addition tp the ribbon dec
orationS of recent years, a deep nounce
of lace. Possibly the next thing Will
be the decree that the flowers them
selves shall be artificial. Who wants 10
see bridal bouquets petticoated with
lace and trimmed with loops of ribbon?
Il
the way of the bride. and decorating
the church with garlands, and present.
ing the bride with flowers TO carry IN
her hand, is an old, natural and beau
tiful one. The association of flowers
with a beautiful woman is one OF the
most natural and inevitable in life.
Each plain girl, at the supreme moment
of her life, is somehow akin to the
flowers she carries. Then, too. the we'd
ding fe,stivity is itself a spontaneous
outgrowth of human nature. The In
stinct of natural, happy people is TO cali
in friends and neighbors TO give their
good wishes on such happy occasion,
and. in after years, many woman
looks back with thrill of happiness al
the day when all her friends gathered
about her to witness her entrance into
her new life and wish her joy. But all
the poetry and beauty of the old Gus
tom is spoiled If it loses its simplicity
and spontaneity. The brides gown
NAV be rich, and the church may be
large one, crowded with guests; but
the happiness of the occasion may stili
be as freely evident as in the uuietest
.shome wedding" Of the season. But
what bride, who has any genuine senu-
ment in her soul ct a time wnich
should be overlooking with sentiment,
wants to carry to the altar bunch oil
orange blossoms, done up by florist
tied with ten yards Of ribbon and cur
tanned with lace friil?