The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1876-02-24
Our NEW YORK LETTER.
New YORK. Feb. 10th, 1876

New York. Feb. 10Th, 1876
The week may be summed up thus,
in brief: weather in extremes, amnse-
men,s Unsuitable. Business wedged
in between times. With Lent already
in view, the gayities of the season
whirl faster and faster, and there is
no end to the fun this winter, though
it may not be Of the grandest kind.
Still there is much social ambition to
air the last refinement in receiving.
People might very truthfully send
out invitations which would read, "to
meet the new dinner SERVICE" or to
exhibit the drawing-rooms, refurnish-
ed by Cottier, who is the fashionable
high art furnisher, for those who eat,
sleep aud drink according to stand
ard.
FASHIONABLE ENTERTAINMENTS.
The young folks, of course, belong
to . musical or dramatic society OF
the selectest sort, which gives excuse
for dozens Of delightful evenings at
rehearsals in cosy private parlors, and
. gratifying dash at public applause
in the name of charity, which IS of
old beareth a multitude OF sins, anna
teur and otherwise. Dickens parties,
where everyone dresses after some
character from the great novelist, are
more elaborate than ever. The char
acters are more deeply studied, and
their dress, manner, and speech are
carefully taken from the pages of the
"Household," or the "Globe" editions
of the novels. The more one can
look like one of Cruikshanks designs
the better.
IL
But for fun alive, and deepest dis
sipation, go to rosebud party, to
which all the ladies' invited are seeing
their FIRST seasons in socie,y--that is
if you can get card for it. No favor
dispensed BY a kind and charming
hostess is SO coveted as an invitation
to her rosebud party, for the compli.
ment bears on the face of it that she
considers you one of the eligibles Of
her acquaintance. Going, you end
the drawing-rooms-nobo says par.
lor anymore except an old fashioned
fellow like myself, we take so closely
after the Eaglish-hung with fern,
smilax and spirea, feathering from
mantel and coruice, baskets of halt
blown roses on every stand, and
scores of debutants in pink and cream
color floating about, with all the mis-
chief they learned at Mrs. Msares' or
Madame Chegarays' at five hundred
dollars a quarter, fresh in :heir pretty
heads. These pretty bacchanals, fresh
from uptown boarding schools, waltz
the widest, firt the deepest and sip
champagne the most de6antly of any
bellies afoat, unless we except few
of our pretty married women--and do
this with more freedom than they
will ever find at command again.
POUND PARTIES.
This form of amusement is bound
to be caught up at once for the use of
church parties and ladies' charities, it
is so cheap and 50 diyerting at once.
1t has the patronage Of fashion this
winter, for it is a favorite form Of
spending a social evening among the
matrons and elderly business men
who are not above having some fun
of an evening in their good clothes.
So while the young people are off in
their pink gauze and dresscoats for a
the "Elks" ball, or that
of some select and expensive regi-
ment-the rooms of the cosy Mansion
avenue house are thrown open TO a
hundred or SO friends without any
special preparation in the way Of
flowers or music, but with a hot sit
down supper to follow in comfort for
everybody. The guests come well
dressed but not over dressed, for the
end and aim of the pound party is to
have a good time. Each one is ex-
pected to bring with him or her a
package of something or anything to
weigh exactly pound, done up SO
that nobody can tell what is in it
The fun is to hold parlor auction
with the glibbest speaker as auction.
eer, and the parcels are sold to the
highest bidders unopened, for the
benefit of some charity which the
hostess has at heart.
Fun, is it? You never saw such
fun as when the packages are opened
and the Wall Street man who bio
FIVE dollars for tissue paper parcel
finds that it contains bologna sau.
sage, bought on the way up town by
fun loving matron, or the stiff bach
elor bids off a girls powder and
rouge box, or risky young married
woman finds pound of smoking to-
bacco in hers. Not very great or high
toned amusement, like the informal
coteries, upon Park avenue, where
the elect decide the movements Of
powers and parties in the interval OF
serious flirting and composing serene
epigrams.
LEAPYEAR PARTIES
Are discreetly INDUCED in, with the
name of two or three married ladies'
of the highest standing at the head of
the invitation cards, as vouchers for
decorum, and the chic OF the affair.