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Show BEFORE AND AFTER MAH-Rl MAH-Rl ACE" After the dinner comes the reckoning, reckon-ing, and the close of "the season,": tiiat loreta;to of paradise to sweet I seventeen, seems an appropriate' time to review some aspects of the elaborate social machinery, which, 1 during the i.ist few mouths, has been put in motion. It is, we imagine, generally nndoi stood that the class of social festivities which mart the first! two months of the year, arc especially for the pleasure of the young unmarried, unmar-ried, although it must be admitted that nowadays certain frisk matrons pretty freely lake their pastime therein. there-in. The wheels are, in fact, set in' motion "to brin;; young people to-uetber," to-uetber," who, should I hey find such juxtaposition agreeable, will make it out in company for the rest of their days. Ot the&o young people, the fairer portion neither toil nor spin. It is with them an understood thing that on leaving school, life is for the, present to be given up to enjoyment, which their parents will do all in their power to further. And until their girlsare married, the parents emphatically emphat-ically do so. There is nothing which their darlinc mrls may not do and may not have. If now and again mamma turns restive, why a few extra kisses and endearments will always coax what is wanted out of papa. So it comes to pass that the young American Ameri-can lady, tho child of more or le.-s affluent parents, may well be the object of envy of young ladydoin the world over; not only lor her freedom from restraint, and on account of the tender consideration shown her, bin lrom the amazing amount of money she is permitted lo spend. What she wants she has. In many cases she may go to shops, take her fill of ribbons rib-bons and laces, and send the bill to papa, who paj'B it without a murmur; and even where there- is not quite such carte Llmichc as this, she has an allowance which would make a duke's daughter wild with envy, for there have been numbers of girls going out this ieason who spend lrom $l,ou0 to $2,500 a yuar on their dress, and who have some unpaid bills as well. And arc ah these youm; ladies going to be beautifully dressed forever? Is papa, when Angelina comes blushing to say that Edwin has implored her to bo his, going to say, "Bless you, my child, 'you shall have hail a million mil-lion .down, and some more afterward"' after-ward"' Here comes the rub. The "old man," as E.lwin disrespcctlully calls him, is all smiles, shakes that young gentleman warmly by the hand that is, if he feels secure that he has euough to live upon but says never a word about "comintr down" with any cash. Th:-y are married. And what a "loci-ly" wedding! Grace i church, Brown, flowers, presents aud what presents! and such i (runs-1 sc.m. But, like tiie Count in Bulwer's story who had so many good thinpa, yet lacked one, Elwin soon discovers: that lo him also there is one, and the same one, wanting ready money. ''rousscaux won't hint forever, enpeii-1 ady when "one must be io the fasuion, you know," and, allhoug i papa has; allowed $J,000 a year for ante-nuptial j trapping he d.n.sn'i give two thousand thou-sand cents for post nuptial gauds, whilo the lady's tastu has by no means undergone the rcqui-ito economical; change for something cheap aud: strange lo her previous notions. j Here, surely, is a great mistake. There should be some congruity between be-tween what a girl spends at seventeen j an.l what shu is likely to have to spend at say eeven-and-twenty. It is no kindness to give one whoso future poition is, pecuniarily, quite in doubt, as much to spend on lur attire as she may a fe.v years later have for ' everything. The f.ther who does this i is an induigent, but not a ready Kind, parent. It would be intinheiy kinder, ' as it would he wis-r, for him to put' iiside $2,000 a year out of the four to settle on his daughter on the day of' her marriage. How far more appreciated appre-ciated it would he when, living in the pukv rooms of an apartment house, she had three cliii.lren clinging to her skirts. Anlo. nuptial lile Un'l every-) thing, girls should remember. There come long, and lo too many, hard years, when the value of money comes to be deeply fell, and the real y kind father is lie who takes measures to help his children then, rather than to stimulate their vanity by an absurd extravagance at a period when youth itself ought to bo almost an adequate zet to hie. New York 'lime.i. |