The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1907-01-08
HOME is BRIGHTER WHERE GIFTS
ARE LIVED UP TO.
Making Everyday Use Of Them is
Far Better Than Storing Them
Away-Importance of Look
ing Ones Best.
sY MARGARET e. sANesrER.

BY MARGARET <. sANGsTER.
remember a young couple who
sent ont an enormous number of in
v1tations to their church wedding, in
GLIDING every family of whom either
had the slightest knowledge, and, in
deed, presuming in some instances
on what was merely collateral and
rather sketchy acquaintance. On be-
ing asked why they scattered their in
vitations broadcast like seed thrown
in the furrow, they explained that
they hoped for a great many wedding
presents. w have not enough money
to furnish our house, they said, "and
we expect that almost every one who
receives an invitation will send us
something" They quite ignored the
possibility that heaps of wedding pres
ents may prove burdensome, and hat
future obligations might be an embar-
rassment, when, in turn, their unmar-
ried friends should mate. All they
wanted, as they frankly said, was to
secure a quantity of nice things to-
ward their own housekeeping.
Wedding presents extend over an
infinite range. They may be expen-
sive or cheap, useful or decorative.
Sometimes they are pledges of the
deepest love; again, they are tokens
of the spirit of bargaining that is ia
tai when it enters the realm and the
fairyland of gifts.
Silver, china and glass take the
most prominent rank in the list of ar
ticles desirable for bestowment on a
bride. Her people and the groom's
people usually, if their means permit,
procure as much table silver for the
bridal pair as they can use in a life
time. 1t is always the proper thing
to send spoons and forks, cream Jugs,
salt cellars, teapots, salvers, bonbon
dishes, and everything else that a
modern table requires, as a wedding
gift.
Such presents should not be en-.
graved, as when there are duplicates
the bride may exercise her privilege
of sending them back to the manufac-
turer and effecting an exchange agree
able to herself.
Two methods are in vogue III the
home making that follow the wedding
presents. One bride in terror lest
burglars shall invade her domain,
packs away her entire outfit of fine
china and solid silver and sends it
to a safe deposit vault, where it sees
the light seldom, emerging occasion
ally hen there is special company or
some reason for display. There are
families whose stock of silver has re-
posed in a bank in this way for many
successive years. In these instances
plated ware is allowed to do duty for
the genuine article, and the remainder
of h table equipage is in harmony
with that. There can be no objection
to the use of good plated silver
dishes, but teaspoons and tablespoons
should be real silver, unless there is
a good eason to the contrary. h
plated spoon never loses it's character
of a substitute.
The bride who determines to take
what precautions h can, but who
uses her good things every day, begins
her housekeeping in Difference to a
higher ideal of beauty and will be
likely to maintain in most depart
ments a greater measure of eff
cheney.
Living up to the aesthetic quality of
her wedding silver and her Wedding
china, she will not fall into the
wretched habit of wearing a wrap
per or a kimono outside her cham
Der door. When she meets people in
the morning, h Will be attired from
top to toe in a dress in which she
may walk to the train or the office
with her husband, go to market, do
her shopping, and drop in on a rela-
tive Or a friend. Her stock and her
belt will match in freshness the pol
ish of e silver. She who is careful
to maintain the beauty of her home
by attention to its smallest detail. she
whose wedding presents are not
packed away. but are kept in sight,
will establish in her regime a degree
of good and pleasant, though
elastic system that win result in hap
piness to all concerned.
Doubtless there are men who would
themselves aggrieved if their
wives should intimate that they make
a special effort to dress for dinner
yet a man feels the better and rests
the less for exchanging the coat
he has worn all day for another, and
coming to the table with hands
and face and hair freshened up a bit
in the bathroom. The wife who ex-
poets this little concession to conven-
ton and this TENTH to herself will
not forget that her own sweetness is
enhanced by a change of dress at the
end of the day. :
Not long ago. there was a story in
one of the maqaZinQa that apnaa1ad "a ,