Immediately after the church service, a reception is held at the
bride's home, where refreshments are served and two hundred and
forty-two invited guests make the same joke about kissing the
bride. At the reception it is customary for the ushers and the
best man to crawl off in separate corners and die.
The wedding "festivities" are generally concluded with the
disappearance of the bride, the bridegroom, one of the uninvited
guests and four of the most valuable presents.
{illustration caption =
The man of culture and refinement, while always considerate to
those beneath him in station, never, under any circumstances,
loses control of his emotions for an instant. Though the
gentleman-rider in the picture may be touchingly fond of his
steeplechase horse, it is unpardonably bad form for him to make
an exhibition of his affection while going over the brush in
plain view of numbers of total strangers. In doing so he simply
is making a "guy" of himself, and it is no more than he deserves
if those in the gallery raise their eyebrows at each other and
smile knowingly.}
{illustration caption =
The Romans had a proverb, "Litera scripta manet," which means
"The written letter remains." The subtle wisdom of these words
was no doubt well known to the men of the later Paleolithic Age
before them, but evidently the gentleman in the engraving never
heard of it. If he had kept this simple little rule of social
correspondence in mind he would have avoided the painful
experience of hearing his obsolete emotions exposed to the eager
ears of twelve perfect strangers.
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