Arizona republican., 1907-12-08
FEWER WEDDING PRESENTS
A Reaction Here as in London Against
 lndiscriminate Giving.

ifs largely responsible for the change.
 Not long ago an English bride to be. lthe daughter Of noble house. sent out twith the invitations to her wedding a request that no wedding present lshould be given Previous to that Iseveral brides socially high mp had Iverbally expressed themselves in the same way. but as it is not possible to reach in this way the hundreds of per sons asked to a big wedding, their sen timents were not known except to the few intimates from whom a gift would probably be received, no matter what the brides feeling on the subject might | be.
 l Like every other rule, of course this rule will have exceptions. Just how many exceptions the bride who sent out the printed requests has discovered is not known. It is known that from then on fashionable English brides l have set their faces against receiving wedding presents from any but rela- | Itives and that in London the vogue of sending wedding presents indis criminately is dying fast. Ask a New York silversmith or q dealer in cut glass if he has discovered any falling
 
 ents and he will say No at once What is more. he will refuse 10 enter tain so harrassing thought.
 | But when mothers and daughters who are identified with the very veal thy class are approached on the same subject they tell quite another story. The other day when a young and very charming widow identified with the Newport colony and the Long Island hunting set announced her approach ling marriage she also announced that she didn't want any wedding presents. That she will go so far as to have a notice to that effect included in the wedding invitationss is not likely. A lsocial leader in the same set says she thinks it quite unlikely that Aemricans lwill go so far as that in any case. In the days when numerically New York society was below rather than Iabove the foo mark the wedding pres lent problem was easy enough.
 Weddings were comparatively small then and the guests were for the most lpart well acquainted with one another and with the bride and bridef room. There was considerable sentiment at Itached to wedding gifts. which were lnot anything like so costly as they lafterWaTd came to be. Handsome gifts lwere then included in the array and lwere valued as highly as are pearl necklaces now. But society didn't stay lat the 400 mark or anywhere near il. New sets and Cliques were formed as fortunes and finer houses increased. land general intimacy was impossible. in its private entertainments this and that clique kept itself pretty much as Ithey do now. but when it came to wedding there were reasons why it was just as well, why it was necessary in fact tO go outside of ones own par lticular circle in sending out invitations. Tt was one way of extending a courtesy lof showing an attention to persons not lexactly intimates. And the bigger the wedding the larger the numebr of Ipresents was sure to be.
 'I never knew a young girl vet but who liked wedding presents" q social Header admitted Not for their value but for the excitement of getting them, the uneXpectedness of the arrival of this and the other thing. It is the isame idea exactly as playing for prizes or taking part in a lottery bargain
 
 promises to give something for noth- ing. Americans are great gamblers. as everybody who knows them knows"
 Had not society grown so fast no place in the Se5 as2t o6qeksyeefshrdl change probably would have taken
 place in the etiquette of bridal gifts. As it was the custom of giving wedding lpresents reached almost a frenzy. Per Isons known scarcely more than by
 name to either family and who were invited only to the church sent valuable
 gifts. Friends invited to the house
 felt that unless they could give pres
 ent they really ought to stay away. If
 some social authorities are correct,
 half a dozen years ago that guest at a house wedding who did not send q gift was deemed very peculiar, to say the
 least. At that time brides who would have been quite shocked if accused of
 bad taste exhibited two or three hum dred wedding gifts with the cards of the donors in plain view and there was speculation among brides to be as to | which would get the most numerous and the most valuable presents. It was just about then it seems. that a reaction began to set in. Women of good taste were beginning to squirm . las one of them expressed it-at be- , ling placed under obligations to per f sons with whom they were not ihti-
 mate. of having valued friends feel r at a disadvantage because not able i to give the bride as much as the
 next one gave. and of having their , daughter begin married life mortgaged to some extent to extend similar cour-
 tesies to several hundred persons whether she could afford it or not. This change has become more marked every year since. It was soon the eX- ception for wedding presents to be
 shown tO any but a favored few. Next
 when gifts were displayed to the chos-
 en ones cards were removed before
 hand. IL began to be known that one might accept an invitation to house
 ceremony or to the reception at the
 house after church ceremony and , not send a present to the bride without feeling hopelessly disgraced. Those i Iquick to discern the fashionable trend
 the signs of the times. discovered that . it was considered better form not to , send gift unless the sender was | counted among the close friends of the , family. Needless to say these signs have been and probably will be disre- l.a