l obligations than they will
be later, and a wise start upon married life is of all things most
desirable and necessary.

_Wedding Fee_

The fee should be placed in an envelope or purse, and given to the
clergyman by the best man or some friend of the bridegroom, just
before or just after the ceremony, as may be most convenient. It is
sometimes handed to the clergyman by the bridegroom at the close of
the ceremony and before the couple turn away from the altar. It should
be always given quietly, privately, and with no display or comment.

The clergyman does not examine the fee or comment upon it, other than
indicating his acceptance.

The size of the fee is a matter of individual taste. Because it is
unostentatiously given, its size is known only to the bridegroom and
the clergyman, and to none others unless they wish to tell. There are
some people in fashionable circles who employ a minister only at
marriages and funerals, and who labor under the impression that they
are objects of charity and that by them even the small favor is always
thankfully received. No one thing so denotes the degree of real
refinement in a man as the fee he offers the clergyman for marrying
him. The clergyman is one of the three principals in the marriage
ceremony. The great majority of brides desire that their marriage
should have the sanction and benediction of the religious body with
which they worship, or which has standing in their community and among
their people. At the very least, in the civil marriage, without a
third party to represent either church or state a marriage ceremony
and therefore a legalized marriage is impossible. The third principal
is therefore an important part of the affair. To treat him shabbily in
any way denotes no real appreciation of his presence. So it is that
the true gentleman is as willing to give a handsome fee to him, if his
means permit it, as he is to give to his bride something which shall
delight and please her, and which shall symbolize his appreciation of
the gift of herself. The bridegroom's offering to the clergyman is
indeed the touchstone of his refinement. Wedding fees vary from five
to a thousand dollars, the usual amount being twenty-five dollars for
the fairly affluent.

_Wedding Presents_

So extreme has become the custom of sending wedding presents that it
is perhaps necessary to remind those who really desire to do the
correct thing, that a perfunctory service, or gift, or cour