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All About Wedding Fees

All About Wedding Fees image
Parent Issue
Day
24
Month
May
Year
1878
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

[From the New York Sun.] In New York, where marriageB form a very important part of the clergy's functions, wedding fees are looked after with especial solicitude. If a clegyman be popular, genial and of good social standing, his fees often form a large item of his income. The cream of the mamages in high iif e usually f alls to the share of the Protestant Episcopal and Presbyterian ministers, since those two denominations embrace the wealthiest part of the ehurch-gomg community. The Episcopal majriage service, with its ring accompaniment, fine music and poetic and historie attractions, is generally preferred by those who desire to be wedded in style, and to start in life under fashionable auspices. The rectors of this denomination's hundred or mere churches probably reap a larger revenue in this respect than those of any other denomination, with one possible exception. Fees of $20, $50 and $100 are not uncommon, while on occasions when the Bishop or some other dignitary of the church is called in they reach $500. In the poorer parishes of the East and West Sides the amount shrinks to $7, 85 and even $2. As a rale well-to-do Episcopalians pay larger fees than others. Next to the Episcopalians in this respect come the Catholics. Strictly speaking, priests are forbidden to take money for such services - that is, they are requested not to sell the sacraments - but custom sanctions a gratuity or offering, the size of which is according to the ability of the giver. As a class CatholicB are more prompt and liberal than the average Protestants. Ten dollars is the sum ordinarily given. Even poor mechanica pay as high as $5. Where the parties are evidently too poor to meet such an expense, the priest often declines taking anything. After the Catholics are Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, and other Protestant denominations in the order of their numbers and wealth. Fees of $5, $10 and $20 are those most commonly given, the latter being the limit usually reached by the well-to-do but not wealthy class. Hebrews contribute liberally, and a Rabbi with an average congregation rarely gets less than $10 or $20, and often $50, $100 and $250. The largest fees are paid in the dis;rict bounded on the east by Fourth avenue, on the south by Fourteenth street, on the west by Sixth avenue, and on the north by Central Park. In this aarrow strip, more than two miles long ay a third of a mile wide, a fee of $50 is norisiilererl ordinory, and of Sil 00 from "fair to middling." In weddings attended with great eclat the amount sometimes reaches $500, though this is usually only when a Bishop or Cardinal is called in. The wealthy dwellers about Gramercy Park are very good payers, as are those on Second avenue, from Eighth street to Twentieth, while the long and solid blocks of brown-stone about Stuyvesant Square are highly remunerative to the neighboring pastors. More fees are paid on the East Side than on the West Side, and more north of Fourteenth street than south of it. It is a little singular that the proportionate size of tke fee decreases on an average ratio with the wealth of the contracting parties. Thus, a man with $10,000 would rarely think of tendering less than $10, while a man worth $500,000 would oonsider $100 ampie. A clergyman of twenty years' experience thinks that 1 percent, of thegroom's income would be a fair amount. A man in receipt of $1,000 per year is willing to pay $10, but one with five times as much would decidedly object to giving $50. Wedding fees in Protestant churches are usually considered the perquisitcs of the pastor's wife. Ladies whose pin money from this source aggregates from $500 to $1,500 a year are to be found scattered over the magie parallelogram on either side of Fifth avenue. Some are said to enjoy as high as $2,000 or $2,500 from this source. In the days of Mr. Beecher's popularity in Brooklyn, his wedding fees are said to have been over $3,000 a year. If the pastor is uumarried he usually puts the money into books. Many a fine library has been accumulated in this way. One Episcopal rector, with a large congregation, contributes the amount of his wedding fees toward paying the funeral expenses of his more-needy parishioners. Forcé oí Habit. In most of our colleges it is the custom for one member of the faculty - usually the President- to have the supervisión of all absent and dilatory students, and to him every such one is to go to explain the cause of his absence or tardiness. No more kind and indulgent guardián of the college discipline could have been found than Dr. A . Every student knew well his old and stereotyped way of saying, " Well, well, I'll excuse you this time; but don't let it happen again." Althongh not in accordance with the usual rule, Mr. H , a married man, had been admitted to pursue the studies of the regular course. One day he was absent; on the next, appearing with his class in the doctor's room, he explained, with great embarrassment, that the arrival of an heir had been the cause of his detention. Without looking up from the papers on his table, and apparently without a thought as to the nature of the excuse, so long as there was one, the doctor graciously remarked : " Well, well, I'll excuse you this time; but don't let it happen again." The announcement was greeted by the class with the most tumultuous applaue. - Editor' s Drawer, in Harper's Magazine for June. The Curse ol' Australia. The terrible drought which has for some time past afflicted almost the whole of Australia is at length breaking up. Sheep and cattle have suffered sevetely, and, in many instances, owners have lost one-half of their flocks and horde, The want of water is really the curse of Australia ; and it seems doubtful whether this can ever be effectually remedied, although large expenditure has been incurred in arrangements for the storage of water in threatened localities. The small land-owners - " freo selectora" and "cockatoo farmers," as they are called - have a very hard time of it, unless they chance to be in a singularly-favored district. Not a oase of small-pox has been reported in Boston íor eleven months,

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus