ANCIENT WEDDING CAKES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2151, 6 August 1907, Page 4

ANCIENT WEDDING CAKES.

A QUAINT AMERICAN CUSTOM

An American seeker after tho curious lias recently been endeavoring to ascertain which bride in the States has had tho oldest cake to grace her wedding-breakfast. He has gathered together many interesting particulars concerning the little-known custom in America of preserving weddingcakes from one generation to another. The gentleman in question, Mr Alfred Sachs, has authentic particulars regarding some fifty cakes, and declares he will not give up collecting these queer facts until tho number lias reached tho century mark. He says: Tho oldest cake of which I have any record is ono wlicili was made as far back as 1543. It was originally made for tho wedding of a Miss Katherine Deering, member of an old Knickerbocker family who were among the first residents of Boston. This lady was married in 1843 to a gentleman of tho name of Stair, and the ceremony was performed at tho Church of* St. Saviour’s, a fashionable place of worship in the literary city. At tho wedding-breakfast there wero two cakes, tho smaller of which was not cut. Mrs Stair decided, therefore, to keep it as a souvenir, and it was put carefully away. Years passed, and in 1862 Mrs Stair’s daughter was married. At her breakfast thorc were also two cakys—a new one and that which had appeared long before at tho nuptial feast of her father and mother. Again, the original cako was left untouched, placed carefully away, and remained hidden in an air-tight box for another twenty years, when the grand-daughtor of Mrs Stair was married to a New York banker. Mrs Stair has now been dead many years, but the cake is still treasured, and recently it was announced that her great-granddaughter is shortly to he united to a West Point cadet, whei^thtww«d»Ji-rg^ljf^s , f“Tß43 l will again" he brought out to shed lustre and honor upon the wedding feast of the fourth generation. This instance of a wedding-cake’s longevity is, course, unique, but I have many records of cakes having reached their thirtieth, thirty-fifth, and fortieth years. Only a few weeks ago the wedding cake, which was the pincipal feature of ' interest at the wedding-breakfast of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Dacre’s marriage feast in Philadelphia, was one which has also been seen upon the table of the • bride’s mother thirty-two years before.

A wedding-cake which is not so old as the foregoing, hut which is surrounded with considerable romance and interest, was ono which was made in 1887 for the marriage of Miss Mabel, Astor, a relation of the wellknown millionaire. Th e cake was distinguished from its fellows by the fact that tho bride’s cipher was traced in tho sugar-plating with real gems—tlie only ornamentation. This cako was not cut, hut put away until the marriage of Miss Astor’s sister, when it was again brought forth, and tho new bride’s cipher added also in precious stones. Since then more than a dozen weddings have taken place in which the bride or bridegroom has been connected with the first lady for whom the cake wbs made. In each case the bride’s monogram was set in the “icing” of the cake, until to-day this wedding souvenir is probably the most valuable one of tho kind in the world.

“THE WONDER CHILD.” Littlo AVandtt Radford, who recently mndo a successful London debut in publio as an elocutionist and reciter, is undoubtedly one of tl>o most wonderful of tho many child prodigies who liavo bid for public favor (says “M.A.P.”). As far as recitations aro concerned, nothing seems to come amiss to hor, so marvellous is her versatility. Sliakcspearo and Dickons, and the groat host of intermediate goniusos, offer hor no difficulties, for she seems so strangely gifted .that sho roalisos their intentions intuitively. Sho is a littlo liark-hairod ox-, ample of Colonial precocity, with a laughing faco full of mobilo sensitiveness, dark, mischiovous eyes, and is just ton years of ago, having been born in Adelaide in 1897. Tho first indications of hor particular form of gonius wore given at four yoars of age, when she began mimicking pooplo so faithfully that it was all tho more astonishing,seeing that hor family is quite froo from the stamp of theatredom. Hor mother, realising tho future of little Wanda’s ability, let her 6tudy elocution under a Ballarat istructor. Thon sho played in pantomime in a company of Mr. J. C. Williamson, tho veteran, theatrical proprietor of Australia, who, by tho way, will bo in England in a week or two.

At eight yoars of age little Wanda and hor mother went to Berlin and captured tho German capital with her rendition of the difficult Potion Beene from Romeo and Juliet. The Berlin people wont wild about her, christening her tho “Wunderkind,” and her fame soon reached the ears of tho Kaiser. Sho performed before the Emperor with such success that sho was appointed to impart to ono of tho Princesses the secret of “lxow to do it,” and became quite tho pet of a ruler. Her first performance in England is to be her last —for a time. Twenty-tlireo German critics and patroiis of tho arts havo constituted themselves an advisory committee, have established a permanent fund, and sent tho child to England so that she may receive the thorough training necessary to equip her for an ambitious dramatic caroer. This arrangement covers the period of five years, during which time it is stipulated that she must not appear at any music-hall or take part in any variety entertainment under pain of forfeiture of her patrons’ assistance. When Wanda loft Belin, wlioro sho was quito a feature of the most exclusive salons, sho was crowned with roses that took with her tho Godspeed of many friends. Sho has given a number of private performances since sho has been in London, and for a week played in Mr. Berbohm Tree’s Oliver Twist company at Portsmouth. “You havo interested mo enormously,” Madamo Melba wrote to her. “I am sure you work hard you will have a very brilliant career.” Most people'who have heard and witnessed her wonderful performance predict that tlie “wonder child” will prove a second Rachel.