FOR RICHER, FOR POORER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 95, 15 January 1908, Page 3

FOR RICHER, FOR POORER.

' A wedding; was a simpler and, I believe, a happier thing 30 years , ago, ivith two or three new frocks and a modest housekeeping outfit; One leally pities the children of the rich who are so surfeited with presents and finery as to have. utterly lost interest *in them. I know the modtern brido, with her absurd \ array .of gifts, making' the house look like an auctjoneer's room or a fancy store in a city, might'well envy my delight in the family Bible, the one set of silver spoons, the porcelain "tea-set," the simple table linen, the twenty-five precious gold dollars "from the groom's father,", and the gay,bed comforter padded with lamb's wool, washed and "carded" by her own hands, which Aunt ■ Margaret quilted for me. Gifts lose their value when they have no suggestion of utility, and \ the beginning of married life loses half its charm without the sense of embarkation on a risky venture that comes to a young couple who know that there are immense difficulties to encounter in the immediate future. I doubt if there is a self-made man living to-day who would not gladly barter his millions and all his remaining days of stale sue- . cess for juA 0110 year of the old times with his young wife and the blessed babies whoso nelplossncss mado life so much more perilous and sweet. I am .No Misanthrope bewailing the evils of; the times. I know there is nothing to be gained by that, but, it is a pity that the big business, has swallowed up the little ones, as the. flat'and the family hotel are swallowing up the home.' All you who have a home, no matter how' modest—with just a bit of yard and gardon to call your own, room to walk about and watch the children play, and to potter around at gardening, and horticulture or-poultry-raising—try- to bear in mind' howyou ■ are blessed in this individuality of living above those whp. are crowded between the high, heartless walls of the city. It is very. fortunate. ;when married lovers arp surrounded by the comforts of-life, which help lis so over the rough places, but passionato human love'has always in it a strong clement of. the sacrificjal. Our. lovers should take .the'joy of their union as a'gratuity, and the pain'ofit as tho strongest tie that binds thcqi. . . 1' ' 1 sometimes feel-disgusted with the extrav.aganco and display of the modern fashionable marriage,' but ;I should bo less than wpmanly if' I did not like some fussand feathers;'so, like all women and most good men, I like a. pretty, wedding, but it; must be- a love match, and thero must be a shower and a trousseau and • a dear little housekeeping-' outfit. The Best Thing About a Marriage is the founding of a now home. A real home is fiod's best gift to man, after the essentials of health and tho functions of the senses. Can we not rear our children with more feeling for home life and less ambition for figuring in tho eyes of their social world? Can vrc not teach them that the great peoplo of the earth are those who are living their own lives, little disturbed or flattered by the neglect or attention of society, and finding their best happiness in the home circle? Let our children marry with the proper ideal of all that home implies—father, mother, brothers and sisters, life's simple atory. briefly told, but never lacking in charm for those who aro awake and aware.—The Country Contributor in tho 'Ladies' Homo Journal."