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Show When Father Pays the Bills All Cotieerntd Unite to Secure a Slice of the Old Mtn's Wealth When He Is Arranging lor the Wedding Festivities of His Daughter. "There are two men who in the midst of their troubles never get any sympathy and they are the man with : the mumps and the prospective father-in-law," said a citizen of this city who is planning an Easter wedding for his daughter, to a writer in the ' New York Commercial Advertiser. "I am planning the wedding of my only daughter and so am learning what , ; every other father before me has learned, that the prospective father-in-law is the legitimate prey of the class of tradesmen who get rich out of the altruism of brides and the gullibility gul-libility of papa. I refer to the caterer, the florist and the choirmaster. choirmas-ter. "It is the duty of every prospective prospec-tive father-in-law to give his daughter daugh-ter a hangup, -wedding, but it is also his privilege to study economy at the same time. I first had a conference with the caterer who helped us out when it was our turn to entertain the Frisky Fossils' Thursday Evening Euchre club: I remembered he furnished fur-nished us punch, sandwiches, ice cream, lady fingers, coffee and camp chairs for fifty people at the rate of 87 cents a head, not counting the charge for waiters. And. I calculated he'd charge an old customer at the same rate per head for wedding victuals of the same sort. But, oh, no! This is a wedding! He couldn't think of serving a hundred people for less than $200, and that would include ehampagne punch. I insisted that common, everyday punch was good enough, but the caterer succeeded in convincing me that only champagne punch should be served at a wedding reception, and that wedding feed invariably in-variably includes chicken salad and croquettes a la something. So. I gave in. "Then I sought the florist' My daughter decided on daisy bouquets for the bridesmaids, a bouquet of lilies lil-ies of the valley for herself and boutonnieres of daisies for the ush-' ers. I figured on 25 cents for the boutonnieres, $5 for the lillies of the valley and $2 each for the bunch of daises and thus fortified I went to the florist. In this item I had to raise the ante about 100 per cent. I got the boutonnieres for 50 cents, the daisy bouquets for $5 and the lillies of the valley for $10 and for this price I got a 'cascade' bunch, which, I was informed, in-formed, was a great concession for which I ought to be thankful. "But I got my real eye-opener when I went to get the choirboys to sing. Now, I thought the boys would be glad to come around to the- house and have a good time and sing 'Faithful and True' and 'The Voice That Breathed O'er Eden' for 50 cents each. But I forgot again that a wedding wed-ding changes the aspect of all things. The boys will sing Lohengrin and the anthem at $5 a head. "Thus have my eyes been opened and my legs been pulled, but I am rejoicing. My girl will have as pretty a house wedding as has ever been given above 72d street." "Well, then, don't kick when the livery stable keeper tacks on $10 to your contract bill for carriage hire," added a sympathetic listener. |