Year: 1878

SIGNIFICANCE OF WEDDING CARDS.
The following beautiful letter was writer
several years ago by gentleman to a brid,
on receiving her wedding cards It's ex
quisitely fresh and original, and full o
poetry. Though not intended for publ
cation, it found its way into print, and WI
think it too much of a gem to be lost en-
tirely:


Z" | am holding some pasteboard in my
hands, Addie three stately pluckingl
from the bush of ceremony l am gaz
ing upon a card and a name-a nam,
with which your gentle life began, name
with which your throbbing heart was lost
There is nothing strange about that card
The maiden sign still looks up from it
calm and customary, as it looked on many
friendly visit, as it lies in many for
NAL basket. / am gazing, too, upon card
where the nearer parent tells the world
she will be "At Home one day, and that
is nothing new! But there is another
card, whose mingling there puts tongue
OF hre into this speechlesS pasteboard, en-
ameling fate on commonplace. 1t tells
US that feeling is maturing into destiny
and that these cards are but the pale her
aids Of S coming crisis, when hand that
has pressed friends hands and plucked
flowers, shall close down on him to whom
she shall be friend and flower forever af-
ter. | have sent you few flowers to
adorn the dying moments of your single
life. They are the gentlest types of del
icate and durable friendship. They spring
up by our side when others have deserted
it, and they will be found watching over
our graves when those who should cherish
have forgotten us. 1t seems meet to me
that past, so calm and pure as yours,
should expire with a kindred sweetness
about it; that flowers and music, kind
friends and earnest words should conse-
crate the hour when sentiment is pass
ing into a sacrament.


The three great stages Of our being
are the birth, the bridal, the burial. To
the first We bring only weakness, for the
last we have nothing but dust But here,
at the altar, where life joins life, the pair
come throbbing up to the holy man, whis-
pering the deep promise that arms each
with the others heart, to help on in the
life-struggle of care and duty. The beau
tiful will be there, borrowing new beauty
from the scene. The gay and the friyo-
lous, they and their founces will look SOL
emn for once. And youth will come to
gaze on all its sacred thoughts pant for !;
and age will totter up to hear the old
words repeated that to their own lives have
given the charm.


Some will weep over it as if it were a
tomb, and some will laugh over it as if it
were joke, but two must stand by it, for
it is fate, not fun, this everlasting locking
of their lives


And now can you, who have queened
it over so many bending forms, can you
come down at last to the frugal diet of a
single heart ?


Hitherto you have been clock, Civ
ing your time to all the world Now YOU
are a watch, buried in one particular bo-
som, warming only has breast, marking only
has hours, and ticking only to the beat Of
his heart-where time and feeling shall
be in unison, until these lower ties are
lost in that higher wedlock where all hearts
are united around the Great Central Heart
of all.


Hoping that calm sunshine may hal
low your clasped hands, l sink silently in
to a signature. DC. S.