, 1885-05-07
PHILApELpHIA,s cookINe cRAze.
Young Women Tractieing on Toy Stoves
-Quser Clubs and Costly Dinner.

Young Women Fracticing ON Toy Stoves
queer Clubs and Costly Dinners
rPfiladelphia Cor. New York sun
A regular cooking craze exists here
in the most fashionable circles. Young
women who are infatuated in the study
OF how to make Irish stews, and tho
greatest bellies of the town spend
hours before pretty little toy stoves
Of their W studying the myster-
les of marmalade and m%ayonnais.
There are a half dozen or more notable
cooking clubs for men here, some of
which have achieved a wide reputation.
The State in Schuylkill, as it Is called, is
the most famous. Lafayette undoubt-
eddy sat at its board, and there are ira
ditions adoat of how the Father of his
Country, with an apron en- and his
sleeves rolled up, pared potatoes and
helped make soup under its roof.
Lately the club celebrated its 152d an
n~iyersary. Itoynsan island in the river,
which, in the formation Of the origi-
nal Union, was left as a joke out of the
country, a principality in itself, and it
is calledthe State in Schuylkill. Every
member has to don a peculiar costume
and help prepare the dinner and brow
the punch. Every applicant for
membership must serve an hppren-
ticeship at cooking before he is adj
United. The Rabbit club is another
cooking organization, and there are a
number more that combine fishing and
rowing with the art Of frying and broil-
ing. There are dozens of men in the
Philadelphia club who, if the chef does
not get up a souifle to suit them, can
and often do go into the kitchen and
cook it themselves. Large sums of
money are spent for dinners, and the
private dinners Of some of the old banks
and trust funds are exceedingly elabor-
ate affairs. 'Nl h-i
A movement has just begun to have
cooking taught in the girls normal
school with a view Of giving the teach
ers who go forth TO the public schools
such a knowledge of lit hat they may
be able to make practical housekeepers
OF the rising generation Of girls. The
ladies at the head of this movement are
Miss Pendleton, the sister of Hon.
George H. Pendleton, and Miss Mere
dith, a daughter of the late William NJ.
Meredith.
A dozen or more dining clubs have
sprung up, all of them unique. The
Clover club, for instance, makes it a
point to invite any stranger of conse-
quenee who happens to be in town on
the set dates of its monthly dinners.
The result is that governors, patent
medicine men, statesmen, dentists, edi-
tors, song and dance men, railroad
presidents, actors, negro minstrels-a
medley of the most surprising character
meet around its festal board. Every
n is expected to contribute to the en-
t~ertainment if called upon, and from
the beginning until the ending of the
dinner some one is on the floor singing,
dancing, telling a story, making q
speech, doing a cardftrick, or amusing
the company in some original manner
Actors and others sometimes come in
disguised and kick up fictitious rows, to
be taken out by mock policemen. Be
tween times the whole company, num-
bering 100 or more, sing comic songs
and click their glasses in chorus.
Every n has to throw off dignity for
the time being, and no man is safe from
jokes and interruption while speaking.