e and sank in each other's arms before a
crowd of sympathising and tearful spectators.

This took place more than a hundred and twenty years ago, but I have
in my possession what I can only describe as the "literature" of a
marriage celebrated three years ago between a North and a South
German, both belonging to commercial families of old standing; and it
supplies me, if I needed it, with documentary evidence that Germans
enjoy now what they enjoyed then. The marriage took place in winter
and from a flat, so that the bride's friends could not build grottoes
or hide musicians behind a bush; but for weeks before both sides of
the family must have been busy composing the poems sung at the wedding
feast, the music that accompanied them, and the elaborate humorous
verses containing allusions to the past history of the bride and
bridegroom. To begin with, there is a dainty book of picture
postcards, the first one giving portraits of a very handsome and
dignified bridegroom with his dainty bride. Then there is a view of
Dresden where the bridegroom was born, another of the Rhenish town in
which he found his bride, and one of Berlin where she used to stay
with a married sister and deal "baskets" right and left to would-be
admirers. In Germany, when a girl refuses a man she is said to give
him a "basket," and a favourite old figure in the cotillon used to put
one in a girl's hands and then present two men to her. She danced with
the one she liked best, and the rejected man had to dance round after
them with the basket.

Besides the book of postcards, each guest at this wedding was
presented with printed copies of the _Tafel-Lieder_ composed by
members of the family. One of these has eight verses and each verse
has eight lines. It relates little events in the life of the
bridegroom from babyhood onwards. You learn that he was a clever
child, that he lived at home with his mother instead of going abroad
to learn his work, that when he was young he ardently desired to go on
the stage, that he is a fine gymnast and musician, but that he needs a
wife because he is a dreamy person capable of putting on odd boots.
Another _Tafel-Lied_ describes the courtship step by step, and even
the assistance given by the poet's wife to bring the romance to its
present happy conclusion.

"At last Frau Sophie stirred in the affair,
Her eyes had pierced to his heart's desire,
With fine diplomacy she coaxed Miss Clare
To own her ma