y her bridesmaids lunch quite informally with her, or come in for
tea, the day before the wedding, and on that day the bride gives them each
"her present" which is always something to wear. It may be the muffs they
are to carry, or parasols, if they have been chosen instead of bouquets.
The typical "bridesmaid's present" is a bangle, a breast pin, a hat pin,
which, according to the means of the bride, may have great or scarcely any
intrinsic value.

=BRIDESMAIDS AND USHERS' DINNER=

If a wedding is being held in the country, or where most of the
bridesmaids or ushers come from a distance, and they are therefore
stopping at the bride's house, or with her neighbors, there is naturally a
"dinner" in order to provide for the visitors. But where the wedding is in
the city--especially when all the members of the bridal party live there
also--the custom of giving a dinner has gone rather out of fashion.

If the bridal party is asked to dine at the house of the bride on the
evening before the wedding, it is usually with the purpose of gathering a
generally irresponsible group of young people together, and seeing that
they go to the church for rehearsal, which is of all things the most
important. More often the rehearsal is in the afternoon, after which the
young people go to the bride's house for tea, allowing her parents to have
her to themselves on her last evening home, and giving her a chance to go
early to bed so as to be as pretty as possible on the morrow.

=THE BACHELOR DINNER=

Popularly supposed to have been a frightful orgy, and now arid as the
Sahara desert and quite as flat and dreary, the bachelor dinner was in
truth more often than not, a sheep in wolf's clothing.

It is quite true that certain big clubs and restaurants had rooms
especially constructed for the purpose, with walls of stone and nothing
breakable within hitting distance, which certainly does rather suggest
frightfulness. As a matter of fact, "an orgy" was never looked upon with
favor by any but silly and wholly misguided youths, whose idea of a
howling good time was to make a howling noise; chiefly by singing at the
top of their lungs and--breaking crockery. A boisterous picture, but
scarcely a vicious one! Especially as quantities of the cheapest glassware
and crockery were always there for the purpose.

The breaking habit originated with drinking the bride's health and
breaking the stem of the wine glass, so that it "might never serve a