re asked at the
same time that the baby's arrival is announced to them, occasionally even
before.

The Gilding baby, for instance, supposedly sent the following telegram:

Mrs. Richard Worldly,
Great Estates.

I arrived last night and my mother and father were very glad to
see me, and I am now eagerly waiting to see you.

Your loving godson,
Robert Gilding, 3d.

But more usually a godparent at a distance is telegraphed:

John Strong,
Equitrust, Paris.

It's a boy. Will you be godfather?
Gilding.

But in any case a formally worded request is out of place. Do _not_ write:

"My husband and I sincerely hope that you will consent to be our son's
godmother," etc. Any one so slightly known as this wording implies would
not be asked to fill so close a position as that of godmother without
great presumption on your part.

You must never ask any one to be a godmother or godfather whom you do not
know intimately well, as it is a responsibility not lightly to be
undertaken and impossible to refuse. Godparents should, however, be chosen
from among friends rather than relatives, since the sole advantage of
godparents is that they add to the child's relatives, so that if it
should be left alone in the world, its godparents become its protectors.
But where a child is born with plenty of relatives who can be called upon
for advice and affection and assistance in event of his or her becoming an
orphan, godparents are often chosen from among them. Nothing could be more
senseless, however, than choosing grandparents, since the relationship is
as close as can be anyway, and the chances that the parents will outlive
their own parents make such a choice still more unsuitable.

In France, the godmother is considered, next to the parents and
grandparents, the nearest relative a child can have. In some European
countries, the Queen or another who is above the parents in rank, assumes
a special protectorate over her godchild. In this instance the godmother
appoints herself.

In America a similar situation cannot very well exist; though on rare
occasions an employer volunteers to stand as godfather for an employee's
child. Godparents must, of course, give the baby a present, if not before,
at least at the christening. The standard "gift" is a silver mug, a
porringer, or a knife, fork and spoon, marked usually with the baby's name
and that of the giver.