Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-11-18
DINNERS AND BALLS.
Some Interesting Information Con-
corning the Table and the Dance.

Some Interesting Information Con-
corning the Table and the Dance.
An English paper is discussing questions
of social life, and observes on the subject
of dinners:
''Most of us have travelled to an amaz-
ing extent beyond the simple and original
limits of appetite and its supply. Look
at the little dinner which Jones gives to
the Browns and the Smiths-all very
worthy people, yet curiOusly unconscious
that a hundred countries are paying
tribute to their respectable digestive Or
gans. To set the table, first of all has
taxed Russia and Ireland for linen, the
Spice islands for the cruet- stand, Africa
for the ivory handled knives, Mexico for
the plate, and Honduras for the mahogany
tree itself The vermicelli in the soup
has travelled from Naples; the oil for the
fish from Tuscany; the Baltic, likely
enough, has forwarded the caviar and
the Mediterranean, sardines for the
hOr8 dFUres. Then, not to speak
of the native growth commodities which
will grace the comfortable bOard-such
as mutton from Wales or the Grampians,
Aul htN1 NUN WI ltlh. ElOuSN NUN bNcN-
land, and WoOdCOck from COnwall-Win
the dinners not have ice from American
or Norwegian winters, wines from vine
yards of the Garronne and the Rhone,
sherry from Spain, and Hguetr of the
Russians or the FTenchman's making,
with fruits from West Indian and GreCian
islands, swcetmeats of Paris, and coffee
gathered at Costa RIGA, at Mocha, or, as
it may be, Ceylon2
"If the gentlemen, as is quite possible,
smoke after the banquet, Havana on one
side of the world and Manila on the other
side, furnish them with the fragrant leaf
should the tObacconist be only conscien-
tiOus; and when the ladies take tea, China
transmits, over 10, 600 miles waterway
to their comedy lips, the material for the
steaming infusion.
Furthermore, the dresses which the
company viii wear, and their various
ornaments, open new chapter of
geographical enumeration. SilkwOrms of
Lombardy and Japan, looms of Genoa
and Lyons, cotton growers in Egypt,
Tennessee, Brazil, OrDharwar have united
to array them; their gloves used to roam
upon the Savoy mountains their feathers
flew about the palm-grOves of Sumatran
archipelagoes; their matronly ClaGOn-
| point is sustained by the bones of Arctic
whales; Persian oyster beds have supplied
thor pearls; and their chignons possibly
once belonged to heads thousand miles
away.
at is curious to remark, in truth, that
! civiliZation-in the sense of community
of customs-is at present mainly confined
to dinners and TO dress. We cat together
| from all the menus of all the lands, and
VIC array ourselves, in order to eat, in
one and the same lugubriOus style, through
out the civilized world. Dinner has ef
| fected what commerce, treaties, travels
and Christianity never could compass, for
\ widely diverse in all other particulars, the
Englishman, Frenchman, American, Ger
man, Italian, Spaniard- in fact, all
decent people within the range of Euro
pean influence-put on one and the same
yestment when they go to dinner.
The same paper says: A correspond
ent says that, in place Of dancers, what he
sees nowadays in bathrooms is crowd
of oyerdressed people who do little else
than tread, trample and maui each others
toilets about Every now and then there
is space cleared as if for a fight; and a
few couples contrive to execute few
spasmodic maneuvers without grace or
dignity. No doubt in such space a few
couples may occasionally be seen whirl-
ing about-waltzing, they call it--like a
set Of dancing deryishes; but the exhi-
bition is rather unpleasing than other
wise; and yet pretty young girls are the
performers. This is the first point; there
cannot be dancing where there is not
| space.
IF you would give "A ball, you must
have a ball room. All your devices of
clearing away furniture and rigging up a
little symbolical greenhouse ON the landing
place on the top of the first flight of stairs,
are idle and of no avail You have re
ceivcd 140 guests where 40 should have
! been your limit. Unless you can perform
the trick of putting a gallon of water
into pint bottle, you should give up the
vain endeavor of placing your unfortunate
fellow creatures like herrings in barrel.
More than half of the guests-uay one
dare TO cali them llow-creatures P-are
ladies with elaborate trains; what pleas
ant time they must have of it, gasping
about on the stairCases and in the Hobbies