s cuts
a wedding cake in which a silver piece is baked; the person who gets it
being expected to live to celebrate his or her silver wedding. Speeches
are made, often an original poem read, and not infrequently the health of
the pair pledged in a glass of wine.

Golden Weddings--Occasions for the celebration of fifty years of union are
much rarer than any other. Nor are they wholly joyful. The aged couple are
looking from "life's west windows" at a fast declining sun. A few short
years and it must set for them. The festivities are usually planned and
carried out by their descendants, who so far as possible summon to the
celebration the friends of "Auld lang syne," the clergyman who performed
the ceremony and any of the bridal party yet alive, and the dearest
friends of the present. Invitations in the conventional form are printed
in gold letters; often a monogram formed of intertwined initials is placed
between and a little above the years at the top of the invitation. The
wedding cake has a yellow frosting, or if in white, the monogram and the
years--1860-1910--are in yellow to represent gold.

Gifts in this precious metal are naturally circumscribed, but a gold coin
is apropos, particularly if Fortune has been chary of her favors. In the
seventh and eighth decade people have small use for bijouterie.

A golden wedding must be a sad anniversary to the participants. When they
were wedded, they were looking forward, joyously; now they recall the
past, its losses and trials and misfortunes. They remember the children
who are dead, or far away; or the prosperity once theirs, but now fled.
Few old folks would care to celebrate their golden wedding; it is usually
some well-meaning grandchild who sees in it "an occasion." Often, too, the
excitement, the fatigue, the unusual strain on mind and body, result in
illness which sometimes proves fatal.

The Courtesies of the Occasion.--There is no formal etiquette for any of
these anniversaries. Friends, as they arrive, are greeted by members of
the family; then, in the case of the elderly celebrants, are conducted to
them as they sit side by side, and presented. Failing eyesight and dulled
ears demand this. The congratulations are offered, and good wishes for the
future. If any speeches are made, they should be brief, that neither the
old couple or their guests be over-fatigued. The stay should be brief.

[MANNERS AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS 747]

Gifts.--Gifts for the anniversary