PECULIAR WEDDING PRESENTS

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1920, Page 11

PECULIAR WEDDING PRESENTS

HOW SOME FOLKS SOLVED THE PROBLEM. There are fashions even in wedding presents, and, unless in the upper circles of society, where a few extra pounds are neither here nor there, the tendency is all towards utility. The costly and ornamental gifts of pre-war days have almost entirely disappeared now, and cheques or gifts of an equally "useful" nature are once more popular. Among the presents at a Glasgow wedding- recently were—two parcels of groceries. Equally practical, if on more generous lines, were the gifts at another recent matrimonial venture. Among them were a cheque for the first quarter's rent of the house from the bride's father; another cheque for the bridegroom's season ticket for a year; and others to provide respectively 12 months' supply of coal, the complete furnishing of the drawing room, and the honeymoon expenses of the happy couple.

.MISS ROOSEVELT'S PRESENTS. These novel and useful wedding gifts remind one of the avalanche of marriage present;-; which were fhnwerod upon Miss Alice Roosevelt 011 the occasion of her marriage to Mr. Longwortli a mimher of years ago. Their value was estimated to touch at least 1,000,000i101. The. whole world seemed to have conspired to pay tribute to the pretty daughter of a popular father. But—and it showed the good sense of "Teddy" Roosevelt's charming daughter—none of all these gorgeous presents jrave the bride more genuine pleasure than the tribute of her father's humble friend?, cowboys and farmers, whose modest, gifts ranged from potatoes to pumpkins. One farmer sent, a sack of mammoth turnips; another a consignment of giant potatoes; from Virginia came a load of apples; while others sent baskets of fruit, and beetroot, with pumpkin-; galore "for Mrs Longworth's winter pies."

RATTLESNAKES' TAILS. But in spite of her array of turnips and potatoes, pumpkin? and beetroot, Miss Alice cannot claim the palm of unconventional bridal gifts, for which there is a host of claimants. One of the most notable of these is a well known British sportsman, who Returned from a sojourn in the Rocky JJoiintains, bringing with him surely the most remarkable trophy ever offered to a bride. With his own hand he had killed 19 immense rattlesnakes, from whose tails he had removed thp rattles to the number of 213. The skins were taken to a

furrier, who fashioned from them a brilliant girdle, taking a small section from each skin; and the edge of the girdle was trimmed with the rattles, after the fashion of jet-beads. ' From the wilds of the forests primeval came another sportsman's wedding present to his bride. These took the form of a robe of bears' skins, the spoils of a hunting expedition; while around her neck she wore a necklace of bears' teeth.

NUCLEUS OF A MENAGERIE. But beans' skins and bears' teeth and rattlesnakes as well are, after all, not to be compared with thn real life article. The ordinary individual would not, of course, thank you for an elephant, a lion, or a similar zoological specimen as a marriage gift. When a young couple brought up in the menagerie business, however, think of "settling down" in life, it is the most natural thing in the world for "'stock-in-trade'' to bulk amongst the wedding presents. This is just what happened in the case of a young girl whose mother was the proprietress of a travelling menagerie, for the latter's gifts to the happy couple were wild animals, to form the nucleus of an elephant, a lion, and a collection of rival show.

There is, indeed, almost no end to the novelty and originality of wedding presents. Take that of the newspaper proprietor who, when his daughter was getting married, arranged that she should "enjoy henceforth the daily profits" of one of the advertisement pages of his newspaper.

A THOUSAND THREEPENNY BITS. Another uncommon present from a father to his daughter on the eve of her wedding was a thousand threepenny bits-—the harvest of many years' frugal saving. Nicely appreciated, too, we have no doubt, would be the gift of a farmer to his only daughter, for on her wedding day he presented her with 18 fine cows, one for each year of her life; and supplemented this handsome gift with another of 23 sheep, the number of his son-in-law's years.