The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-01-16
THE DoINGs OF woMENFoLK.
Curious Fashions and Foibles Which
Attract Attention.

S4N pam II NlllS anu nlSu luluhlllS vi lAlt
Hub by appearing before her Boston audi
enceS in a simple gown without ornaments
I'm New York" she said, lone must wear
diamonds" And yet New York doesn't al
together deserve its reputation as city
given over to dollar worship and display. A
week or two ago at bachelors reception
given by a knot of the richest and most
fashionable men in town. there was lady
OF most charming manners and most shabby
dress. Her bonnet was poor, cheap and
tasteleSs; an old-fashioned shawl was
pinned about her shoulders, and her dress
was old, faded and shabby But the lady
received much attention from the hosts of
the occasion as well as from many of the
guests She was at all times the centre of
group of men and women and was treat
ed with respect and Difference. The reason
was obvious. Her modest and retiring man
ners were extremely charming, her voice
was lowtoned and musical and her CONVEX
Sation was worth listening to.
On the evening of a well-known New
York woman, no long time ago, people
crowded about lady i'll very common
gown. She was positively threadbare and
was undergoing dislntegration as to one of
her shoes. That Enthusiastically article of
apparel, cheap and well worn, had cracked
through the upper and was gradually split
UIllB OOWdlu Ju6 bOSS. 1US WedI6E was pour
in worldly goods beyond question, but she
was an authority on one or two subjects, a
brilliant talker, had a winning personality,
and was, in consequence, a most welcome
guest.
In point of fact New York is cosmopoli-
tan. liz many ways it is the most demo-
cratic of American cities. 1t appreciates
fine clothes, but woman who has anything
else to Recommend her will not find plain
attire bar to enjoyment i'll most of the
circles to which it is worth to while make any
effort to gain admittance. A lady who had
moved much in society in Eastern and
Western cities says that so large a proper
ton of ordinary dresses as one sees side by
side with the imported toilets at a New
York reception could not be paralleled out
side of the METROPOLIS.
FLOWERS ARE NEW YoRKs GREATEST
extravaganza. During the brief social
season more money is spent for orchids
than the diamond bill comes to the year
round.
Hybrid roses cost 81 each. An orchid
spray costs from 81 to SIP. A box of cut
flowers costs from IS to $40 A rose bunch
given as favor at a dance is worth from
81 to SIS. A bridal bouquet sells for SIS to
SIS. A centrepiece of tulips or hyacinths
at dinner is furnished for from $40 to $50
A rose basket for an actress often comes to
800 An orchid table is worth from $400
to S700. Elaborate floral decoration for a
dinner party may cost frorl $3.50 to 81 ,000
Foliage plants and flowers for a home we'd
ding cost $500 to 81 900.
These things being so, the impecunious
society woman, whose ingenious devices for
a living excite ever fresh admirati0 has a
new opportunity. She allies herself with
the florists There is social leader whose
name is in the Sunday papers every week
whose means, owing to her husbands bad
luck as a stock Spectator. have not been
equal for two or three years back TO the
maintenance of the position to which she
was born. Yet she entertains more than
ever, gives a dinner every Saturday, and
and has people about hel constantly at after
noon receptions and teas. 1t is all done on
| flowers. Great earthen jars of roses fill her
| rooms one afternoon. There are roses in
| the window seats, roses overrunning quaint
| rush fish baskets, roses twined about the pic
| ture frames, roses hanging i'll a loose globe
| from the chandelier, roses in a blossomng
rose garden in an alcove, and single roses in
| antique silver vases on each tete-a-tete tea
/ table. 1t is a wilderness of roses with,
| perhaps, a fair new candidate for rose favor
| conspicuously shown. Next time her draw
| ing rooms are sweet with the perfume of a
| pale yellow lily of the valley which nobody
| has ever seen before, or she has rare new
orchid or makes the most brilliant of tulip
'Where do you get them' Do tell us
| about it, dear | had no notion there were
| such large Puritan roses in town."
! The question is inevitable, and it is the an
swer that pays dear" directs her guest
| to Smiths on Broadway, or Jones' on the
avenue, and do they know what exquisite
| violet punches can be had at Browns on
| Twenty-third streets
| Thanks to Smith, Jones and Brown she
| continues to breathe the social atmosphere
| she is accustomed to, and her fellow mon
| DANES look to her more and more as the
| best arbiter of taste in matter floral in the
city.
THE INSIDE HISTORY OF
big social event like the Charity ball, in
! the Metropolitan Opera House last week,
with its twenty debutantes and its columns
| of more or lie S accurately reported fine
| gowns, is sometimes amusing. On recent
| occasion the brilliantly attired and much
| beieweled occupant of conspicuous box
was recognized as the bathmad in family
hotel, who earns her dresses and her dia-
monds. rubbing people down at SO an hour.
| Her husband, who sat beside her, offlciates
nv daylight as headwaiter in the same
! establishment. At last years Charity Ball
one of the gowns which attracted most at
| traction among the dancers on the 1OOr was
worn by a clever telegraph operator. The
wealthy patronesses of such affairs buy up
the tickets by the quantity, and, perhaps,
they show their good sense by distribut-
ing them literally, sometimes to chamber
maids.
When Mr.. and Mrs Craig, Mrs. Lecks,
| Mrs. Aleshine and the DusanteS, in Stock
| tons charming story com menced their long
| slide down the California mountains, the
ladies of the party had their heads tied up
to prevent them from breathing the fine
snow powder brushed off the surface Of the
snow by their coach-cushion sledge The
whole scene irresistibly suggests toboggan-
| ing to the reader, as it was undoubtedly
suggested to the writer by that all pervasive
sport, but the fair tobogganists of the lati-
! ti1de of New York are n { afraid of breath
| ing snow powder. What they have feared
for the most part, this very open winter,
was that they shouldn't get any snow pow
der TO breathe The comparatively few
| davs when snow and ice have refrained
from becoming slush have been well used at
the various toboggan slides hereabouts
And their name is legion. Everybody
takes kindly to the Canadian sport-it
ISN'T that. either, except for the novelty of
fine sled for Yankee boys and girls have
coasted together from time immemorial-
| who can be induced to try it and the oppor-
tI1nity to do so is afforded in Brooklyn, New
York and Jersey City, at Staten Island, at
Tuxedo. at Orange, at Lawrence by the sea,
OF +he polo grounds. at Fleetwood Park and