The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-02-15
MRS. HIcKs-LoRD-s PARTY.
The Scenes and Incidsn ts Of a Recent New

MRS. HICKS-LoRD'S PARTY.
The Scenes and Incids nts Of a Recent New
York Fashionable Reception.
Mrs. Hicks-Lord, who enjoys a national
reputation as one of the leading society Ia
dies Of New York city, held . reception q
few nights ago. Her residence is in the
lower portion of Fifth avenue, which the
''noveau richie" have usually Stunned, pre-
ferriDg the more snowy quarter OF Murray
Hill and beyond to Central Park. Manyof
the old arlstocratic Knickerbocker families,
however, reside in the neighborhood of
Mrs. Hicks-Lord, and IL reports are true,
they must have had their sensibilities
shockingly ruffied on the night of the re-
ception. Some of the scenes, if truly de-
scribed, rivalled the flickering out tableaux
of q ParisianJcarnival ball or the question
able triumphs of the nightly
entertainments in the Latin quarter of the
FreEch capital. 1t was the intention of
Mrs. Hicks-Lord that her entertainment
should be very heightened affair, but she
made the blunder of sending out too many
invitations. She had spent thousands of
dollars for flowers, music and collation..
She had thought to give one OF the finest
receptions ever held in New York, and had
spent her money literally to that end.
She had invited such distinguished people
as Miss Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, Mrs.
John Sherwood, the Countess Esterhazy,
Mrs. Frederick Grant and others to receive
with her, and her list of guests embraced
nearly all of the best people in the city.
The hours from to were set apart
to receive in, and those who were on
time for the first hour saw a delightful
hostess surrounded by attractive and dis
tInguished people in magnificent mouse,
superbly decorated. Happy were they
who left at the end of the first hour. They
were spared such sight as probably never
was seen before in the private residence OF
New York society woman, and compared
with which even the great public reception
OF Mr.. W. II. Vanderbilt was stately and
dignified affair. Two thousand invitations
were sent out. The house would probably
hold comfortably four or five hundred.
The result was thai a very motley assem-
blsge grsced or disgraced the reception. A
New York reporter says that at least one
thousand people attended the reception
who had never seen Mrs. Hicks-Lord before,
and such class of people rs she could not
possibly have met or even known about. OF
this thousand a few obtained cards by lie.
Ultimate means. The rest belong to that
army of men and women who attend large
receptions unasked, women who go out of
curiosity, men who go for what they can
get TO eat and drink, and who also make the
acquaintance of these peculiar females with
dents described are gross and unfit for
publication. They should never have
reached type, and we pass them by. Men
grabbed women in passing. Flowers were
torn from their positions and trodden I'M
der foot; one young man threY out OF q
rare vase a bunch OF Gloire' de France
roses, and filling the vase with the strong
est punch, drank it of at once. The walters
in the dining room were half seas over and
cuo m
feel the infection of their surroundings
and finally succumed to the general pande-
monium. One man showered q glass of
punch over some ladies who stood near,
and seemingly considered it a good joke.
Several men acknowledged that they were
never invited, but they knew the "old
girr' wouldn't know the differencein such
q crush.
Shop girls, type-writers and dressmakers
re among the mobs. One OF the latter
made sketches of some OF the ladies dresses
Only men got into the dining-room. Not
fifty ladies were able even to see the table,
to say nothing of eating Of the Delmonico
spread. A minister present is thus de-
scr1bed: THAT reverend rounder, DR.. -,
was as usual on hand and ate good sub
s'antial meal, after elbowing women and
men right and left, to gain a position
where he would be successfully waited
pom. When he left the house, DR..
astonished every one on the steps by in
stantly lighting cigar. which he persisted
in putting in the faces of the ladies who
formed a struggling mass of humanity
from door to sidewalk. Once down he
forced his way half back again, in order
to have a few words with a prominent
woman in society. After this he continued
to hold a reception on the steps, still
smoking aad expectorating over the ladies'
heads"
One man in the dining room was drunk.
Punch was served in buckets full. A lady
had her foot badly crushed by a burly
brute, who bore his whole weight on her
delicate white satin slipper in his eagerness
to get something to drink. Another man
went about catching hold of respectable
women's hands. There was no accommoda-
ton for hats and coats for the men, and
few succeeded In capturing their own on
taking their leave The only thing that
the gentlemen could do with their coats
hats, and dripping umbrellas was to pile
them up in the front hall, to the incon-
venieDce of the other guesJs. When the
men, later, tried to obtain these belong
ings TO 60 home, as they stopped down to
look for them, ladies tripped over them,
end all were huddled on the floor together.
Some of the late corners so far for.
got themselves as to enter the parlors
with muddy goloshes, damp overcoats and
dripping umbrellas. There was fearful
display of bare backs among the older
women. One old lady who was seventy
five, if abe was day, had dress so decol.
lete that her entire lack was exposed. Her
shoulders were wrInkled and yellow, with
moth patches and moles in abundance.
Her glum face and gray, hair parted in the
center and braided in a small coil at the
back, contrasted forcibly with her very
juvenile attire. Ladies stood for half an
hour or more on the sidewalk, in the rain,
| waiting for their carriages to take them
home, the bottoms OF their dresses soaking
in the mud on the sidewalks. To Judge by
the number of trains of dresses that we're
torn off, the wreckage OF the parlors after
the IL ception must have filled cart.
1t would seem that the "rowdy West
weuld have considerable difficulty to pro-