Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-01-13
FREEHAED NOTES.
LENT APPRoAcsEs-How IT WILL AF-
PEcF FESTIVITIES.
Some socials and Some Dressy Features
The Fire at the Conservatory
Sad Destruction.
-[corespondence Of the RscoRD-Us1os.l

of the RscoRD-USIoS.l
SAN FRANCISCO, January IL, 1883.
The distressing fact is promulgated by
those who have consulted the proper au-
thorities, almanacs or prayer-books. that
Lent comes early this year, Ash Wednes-
day falling on the It'll of February. So
numerous contemplated entertainments
must be given speedily or not at all. Many
have been the bold spirits who designed to
set at defiance the influence Of Lent on
balls, but Lent has in every instance come
out winner, and Lsnten balls are infre-
auent; no one who has given one ever
seems to summon her courage to give an
other. Mrs. Haggin, Mrs. Teyis and Mrs
William T. Coleman are talked of as en-
PERTAINING the amiable intention of
OPENING THEIR HOUSES
To their friends, and Mrs. McMellin, whose
New Year party gave all the pleasure that
was anticipated from it, contemplates
amusing her world with domino party.
Mrs. Charles Crocker's pretty idea of q
fancy dress German is to be repeated this
winter, only the hostess this year is the
bride, Mrs Timothy Hopkins. At Mrs.
Crocker's last year Mrs. Hopkins, then
Miss Crittenden, in an Oriental dress. and
Mrs. Colt in the dress of merceilleur of
French post-Revolutionary days, were
strikingly costumed figures, that are talked
of still. Mrs. OWNS kettledrum last
Saturday was graced by the presence of
Mrs. Stoneman, who was dressed in q
costume Of the pale terra-cotta color which
Oscar Wilde would cay "makes one
dream" To-day Mrs. Frank Pixley gives
one of the perennislly favorite kettledrums.
A PRETTY OBJECT OF ART
Has been selected by gentleman of the
city in one of the principal Japanese curio
shops, and it has pretty story attached
to it, while it's intrinsic beauty is great. 1t
is choice little vase of paste, exquisitely
fine, the prevailing tone smooth, rich
vermilion, and there is good gold.work
about it. A group of three small figures
represents two mobiles reclining under a
tree, listenig to poet-a Damio, as shown
by his cap to those learned in cap lore
who is reading his verses for the delecta-
tion of these esthetic magnates. When, it
was asked, when will the great men of
California find their recreation in al fresco
readings by native poets? On the side of
the vase opposite the medallion is the
fsvorite Japanese bird of Paradise spread
out very fat, but in fine work still, red
and gold. The touches that trace the
feathers on the breast are marvelously del
icate. The inside of the vase is covered
with Japanese characters, nothing else
than the song the poet is confiding to his
delighted auditors in the picture. 1t is
from the Hiakuninshiu, the "Collection of
One Hundred Persons" for the Muse was
popular lady in Japan, and bands of poets
correspondent in verse, and kept each 9th.
er's letters too. The vase is destined for a
keepsake to poet, to commemorate his
first careful work. Hitherto he has writ.
ten only verses and songs, but now what
even he calls poem. It is not in print,
but it is written:
Youth, with burning lips and wreathless hair,
Sings toward the sun that is TO crown his head.
The little vase, with the story it tells,
oOSAAS AZ ePPAOPAA~SO 6uSAOOhs
THE ARTISTIC SUCCESS
Of ons Californian is to be noted. Mr..
Eddie Maston, who left San Francisco
about year ago, to study music and COM
position in Paris, has had mass-his own
work-performed in the Church of the
Madeleine. He made the first sketch of
the mass before he lett San Francisco, and
it was rehearsed and sung by Mr.. Kelle.
hers choral class in the big piano ware
rooms over Gray's store, where there was
q great deal of good studying done with
very little flourish of trumpets, like most
good work. Mr. Maston's inclination is
toward the italian lyrical school of Ros-
SIM, and SO well suited to please the Paris
isns, who still rebel little against the
mastery of Wagner.
The large middle division of the Con.
servatory at the Park remains a blaekened
ruin. The rafters have not been taken
down since the fire. 1t is melancholy
sight, though four beams of the dome,
holding together in great spherical tri.
angle, hang over the charred shell like
black claw, and look picturesquely Mephis-
tophelean viewed from the platform few
rods distant. The great furnace chimney
stands exposed to view with soldierly dig
nity-a red brick chimney always looks
stolid and well TODD, but to see all the
steam pipes that made the tropical atmos-
phere among the palms and creepers, is too
much establishment. We went
INTO THE WRECK.
The little tin girl and boy under their UNI.
brella, on which the water-drops from the
fountain used to splash so prettily, fell
victims to the fire, and, worse yet, SO did
Joaquin Murietta, the sulky, gorgeous
macaw who looked liked fiery hot houie
flower, himself sitting among the dark
green of the plants. The stumps of the
tree-ferns are still in the ground. It is
thought they might be saved if they could
be kept warm, but the transplanting will
injure them more than the fire did, and the
cold air that nothing keeps off of them is
of course deleterious. All the burned part
had been cut away from them, and patch
of dark purple on the earth near them
seemed for moment like the hearts blood
of the poor mutilated trees. 1t was the
light shining through panes Of the colored
glass that the heat had not destroyed. The
two crystal wings of the conservatory were
not injured. The one toward the west was
vivid with the vermilion plumes of the
Poincythia Euphorbia. There was any
number of the plants, as if the gardeners
had caught
THE TONGUES OF THE FIRE
And turned them to palpable velvet. The
camellias are beginning to bud and flower,
and one or two of the orchids, but the
greater part even of the Towering plants
are only green. The fire seems not to have
been the fault of any one. No special