The Washington critic., 1888-03-17
THE LUNCHEON QUESTION.
How to Dress the Table aud what &,
Talk About.


Being pressed for her reasons for
holding this opinion, the lady pro-
ceeded to explain that the very lati-
tude permissible in the arrangement
Of luncheon table, and the prepara-
ton of luncheon menu, raises bar
rier Of difficulties.
Scarcely any two of these midday
entertainments are given alike" she
went on. Every hostess seizes them
as the one opportunity allowed her for
the exercise Of individual taste.
Invariably, the company is made
up Of ladies', and women being con-
fessedly more critical than men, l
never give luncheon without being
beset with numberless misgivings.
However," she added, with sigh Of
satisfaction "I've given many lunch
cons and every one was successful. All
forebodings were carried swiftly away
in the current of 'repartee' and merry
laughter"
There are few ladies who cannot
appreciate these sentiments, and yet
the difficulties about luncheons do
not rest, by any means, solely with
the hostess. She has an embarrass-
ment of riches from which to make
her choice. She may
DRESS HER TABLE
with pink roses, use her conch-shell
tinted china, print her menu on pink.
satin, have her ices served in forms
of pink japonicas, and her whole re-
past under the mellow light of waxen
tapers, shaded with tiny rose-glass
globes. Or she may, on the other
hand, discard every vestige of color,
and rely entirely upon the prismatic
hues that play across the cut-glass
and the chased plate, as the rays of
light, artificial or natural-for it is OPP
tional if the MONDAY luncheon be
lighted by candle or sun-glint over it.
How to dress to 60 to luncheon is q
leading question, but it is one that is
not entitled to half the importance
that is accorded to it. Imprimis,
luncheon is midday meal, and it
should be eaten in midday costume.
II is singular how tawdry evening
or, ,as the term goes, full dress, however
elegant, appears by daylight. Satins
and silks, that at night reflect rich,
brilliant tints, become dull and luster-
less in the merciless light of day; and
no wise woman will don them at such
an hour. A sage has said it were
better to be
DRESSED THAN ovER-DREssED;
better then be the most somber-ar-
ranged woman in an assemblage than
the one who is the most gorgeously
dressed.
There are few more difficult tasks,
let me affirm, than proclaiming set
| rules for dress; feminine caprice will
not be bridled, and, while we venture
to state that visiting costumes are the
accepted luncheon toilets, we confess
at the same time that there are visit
ing costumes and visiting costumes.
Many of them, carriage-dresses, as
they might be the more appropriately
called, are elaborate creations of cloth,
velvet and passementerie, rich in col
oring and design. OF course, it is
generally understood that no lady
| goes to q luncheon table wearing
either her bonnet or gloves; lunch
con, however elaborate it may be, is
more or less an informal repast; and
while at dinner, until the first, or
raw-oyster-course, the gloves are re-
tanned upon the hands, at luncheon
they are removed and left upstairs in
the dressing-room.
Given an artistically-dressed lunch
| con table, well-chosen bill of fare,
an array Of some eighteen or twenty
well-dressed women, and what do
they talk about !? Stag parties We
have been made familiar with f;
we have heard their speeches, their
witticisms, their sarcasms, their keen
cuts widely chronicled; but what can
concourse of fashionable women
talk about? Mallock in his "New
Republic" makes Laurence in
vent dinner conversation, saying
"1t. has always seemed so absurd
to me to be so careful about
what we put into our mouths
and to leave chance to arrange
what comes out of them."| The re-
currence of the expression brings with
it the thought how charming the in
novation presented might prove. To
be sure, we cannot all be as original
| as Mallock, but we can at least reap
the benefit of Mallock's wit, and try
the effect of "bill of conversation"
upon party of assembled friends.
1t would, without doubt, elicit some
| DplCy
1t is to be confessed, and with re-
gret, that we are fast arriving at that
stage when, like the japanese, we
make the object of our entertainments
not so much the careful assembling of
cheerful or congenial party, or the
catering to a varied and epicurean ap-
petite, as the occasion for the display
of our curious and rich china, glass and
silver. No one doubts the effect of
beautiful surroundings upon even the
unappreciative mind, and one can
almost understand the blissful satisfac-
ton of the connoisseur who dreamed
of the crystallized bubble being cut in
halves, each serving him as the ideal
wine-glass. Now that
THE FASHIONABLE MANIA
for china decorating is still ripe in our
midst we may lay claim to far better
pretext for this love of display than
the Japanese can boast, they feeling
complimented when their elegance is
so glaringly apparent that their guests
are impelled to ply them with ques-
tions as to the probable cost of this or
| that article in their table service. One
can find ready pardon for the hostess
who prides herself upon her artisti-
cally decorated china, because much
of it is the work of her own hands.
But even in this case, consistency
is not a bad rule to observe. A
plate that is too gorgeous to eat off is
like peach that is too pretty to bite
into, and yet it is a custom by no
means uncommon at luncheon and
dinner parties to use plates that are
literally and actually too beautiful to
use. They are brought in and placed