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Show WEDDING PRESENTS IN ROME. As soon as an "engagement" is made, the man is compelled by custom to present his affianced bride with ring, watch, chain, locket, earrings and bracelet - a complete set of jewelry, in fact. These presents are as expected as the lady's legitimate trousseau. The husband furnishes the house, and his family generally provide the house linen. On the wedding day, the bride's father usually presents her with earrings, a brooch and bracelet, unless she prefers money, in which case an amount equal in value is added to the dowry, which is scarcely ever paid down. It is either a claim on landed property, or the property itself is entrusted to the husband to administer during his wife's life. If he improves it, all the better for him or his heirs; but in any case he must be prepared to turn it over intact to his children, if he have any, or to his wife's family should he have no issue. No husband, therefore, can benefit by his wife's death in Italy, as the dowry he receives is merely entrusted to him during his wife's life. The husband, too, or his father, must insure the safety of the dowry by a corresponding amount of property. Departures from this rule are rare in respectable families. As for the trousseau, which is generally complete enough to last until the first child has attained majority, it is frequently made by the bride herself, helped by members of her family. Girls prefer to do this when they can, for mothers take pride in showing their own trousseaus to their daughters. These trousseaux, for the beauty of embroidery, excel anything of the kind in Paris. I have seen chemisettes which it took four years to embroider. Needle-work forms a most important branch of an Italian girl's education, and she begins very early to learn how to cut and make clothes. The Queen encourages this by frequently visiting the schools, and rewarding the best workers, to whatever class they may belong. A little countess is as proud of her bronze medal as is the humblest fag-picker's child. Each is allowed to practice on materials of her own, so that everything she wears may be made at school. Her trousseau, or at least the trimming for it, is gradually made in the same manner. When the wedding day is known, each intimate friend of the family has a large card printed with the names of the happy couple, the date of the marriage, and appropriate wishes for the occasion; expressed in prose or verse. Some are beautifully illuminated and cost as much as fifty francs to print [unreadable] hundred copies are made. Every member and friend of both families expect a copy of each card sent. Sometimes even a thousand copies do not suffice. Now, the more of these cards are received, the happier are the bride and bridegroom, and they prefer a card to a present, for a card extols their youth, appearance, and virtues. Wedding presents are, however, creeping in a little even here, but in a mild form, and are give [given] mostly by ladies who do not send cards. The female friends of the bride work sofa-cushions and similar things. Some times a vase with a plant in it is given. But this is all. - The Tour. |