Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-04-20
EGGS WITH YELKS OF GOLD.
Some Odd and Beautiful Designs for
Easter Offerings.
A TooTHsoME COCKTAIL FOR JOLLY BACHELORS
MRS. AsToRs BhEAKFAsT-RULEs FOR PREPAR-
ING EASTER EGGS AT HOME.
From the New York Graphic.

ING EASTER EGGS AT HOME.
From the New York Graphic
The correct and popular gift-giving season
these days among the -Four Hundred is Easter
that is, among the grown-up Four Hundred.
Christmas is being again marked as chiefly a
childrens festival as it used to be, and the
little ones receive their especial overflow of pres
ents then, but for the mature bellies and beaux
Easter is the time for the exchange of tender
tokens. OF course, the natural and inevitable
Easter presents are candy and flowers, but
candy and flowers can be made the medium
for giving about anything
saw an Easter present the other day in
which the confectioner and the jeweler had
been forced into an unnatural partnership 1t
consisted of two pretty bon-bons exactly like
an ordinary hens egg. Each had a yelk of
gold inside this yelk beng tiny Jewel box
that opened with spring and disclosed a dia-
mond earring. The two candy eggs Law in
satin box. The novelty was in having the eggs
OF CANDY; thereby preparing surprise when
they shall turn ont to be not all candy Eggs
as receptacle for jewelry, that is silver eggs
china eggs. enamelled eggs, are as old as
Easter itself for all | know.
Inc great idea in Easter gifts is to exercise
your own ingenuity; to give it an Easter touch
by designing something novel yourself, not SO
much In the gift itself, which can be anything
you Ike, from parasol to a folding bed, as in
the way OF giving it, or the little details of the
design; your parasol can be painted in Easter
lilies, and your folding bed must have nest of
eggs, even If they are only the common hard
boiled variety, temporarily ornamenting its
Corlnthlan capitals or its organ-like key board.
The proper time to give Easter presents is at
breakfast. Breakfast is the Easter meal as much
as dinner Is the occasion on other festal days.
The table is ornamented to any extent that the
purse and the taste of the breakfasters dictate
and at each plate are each persons presents
Not necessarily all of them. however, The
hostess frequently has some design in the CEN
ter OF the table made up of tokens for each per-
son, as for instance. Mrs. Morgan Dix last year
had on her breakfast table beautifully de-
signed white candy bantam hen, with china
eggs under her, each of which contained
trlnket. The numerous progeny of DIR. Dix were
permitted to consume the hen, or a portion of
her, after their meal of oatmeal and fish, which
was an unusual treat, for they are generally
confined with military precision to a strictly
hyGlenic diet.
Mrs. William Aston has ordered several hun
dred dollars worth of flowers for the Easter
decoration OF her house, and the arrangement
Is to be rather novel, as lilies are to be used
almost solely, with only intermixture of
azallas for touch of color The breakfast
table, however, is to be ornamented wholly
with white and pink azalias, because they hav-
ing no odor are particularly agreeable as table
howers. At another Easter breakfast the ex-
pertinent Is to be made of having eggs and eggs
only, in varied forms, as the basis of the meal
Happily the ingenious hostess thinks this ar
rangement does not preclude the indulgence in
shad roe.
At bachelors breakfast to be given by
Harry WatrOus at his studio in the Sherwood
building, cocktails are to be served in uniaue
manner; the inside of a number of eggs will be
blown out through tiny holes and then the
cocktail Will be put in, sealed up, and the
eggs will be broken by tlR guests after the
manner OF those ancient savages who eat their
soft-bOiled ones out of tumbler. Ostrich and
Emu eggs-that is. the shells-are the things
furnished by jewelers. for table decoration; they
are mounted on coral, gold. and silver stands,
and can be used for variety of purposes.
There is no reason why rich people though
should have Easter all to themselves There are
lots OF pretty seasOnable things one can do and
make and have that are inexpensive enough
There Is no more fun to be had than by the sim
pie old amusement of our grandmothers of dve-
ing eggs; and a basket of prettily dyed eggs any
table can afford Easter morning, and they are
enough to give the proper air to the occasion,
and to make everybody there feel that he or she
Is having part i'll the worlds celebration of
the day.
Don't go and buy them colored; the doing of
1t yourself will give you good time as a
Hallow cen spree. You can make the wine
colored eggs by boiling them with logwood
chips; If you put in enough chips you can make
your eggs black. but Il few black eggs will be
all you want. A little experimenting, and you
will be able to get the shade you want. For
brown eggs, boil them in strong coffee Boil
them with onion Feelings, and you have them
yellow. Cochineal is treasure for the Easter
egg dyer, as it is for the fancy confectioner;
with it you can make your eggs any shade from
palest pink to the most brilliant crimson. and
all IN the purest, brightest tints. Other shades
you can achieve by sewing your egg up in silk
the desired shade. and putting it in warm water
in which lump of soda has been dissolved
and then boiling for half an hour
Nariegated eggs can be made with plaid silk
or with different pieces of silk sewed together
for wrapping. When the silk is removed.
allow the eggs to cool gradually, and, if you
want them to shine, you can rub them over
with butter. Grease can be used to produce
effects calculated to make the simple marvel as
much as that old monarch, whoever he was did
as to how the apple got inside the dumping.
Wherever you put grease on an egg before it is
put i'll the dye, the dye don't take and in that
spot the egg retains its natural color The
name of the intended recipient can thus be
written on, and will come out quite distinct
Eggs can be gilded and silvered very easily.
though the result will appear something won
derful and expensive. Boil the eggs, and then
when they are quite hard rub them all over
with painters size. Procure some gold or
silver dust, such bookbinders use put it in
a saucer or plate roll the eggs gently in it.
one at time, till the egg is covered. For still
more gorgeous effects, the egg can be first col
be cut on 1t in the size and the dust Gold and
silver leaf are sometimes used but they are
much more troublesome to manage.
There is no law i'll the nature of things why
Easter eggs should be made hideous combina-
ton of colors nor that to look at a basket of
them is enough to give rhinoceros a tooth.
ache. When l, as a child, use to dye Easter
eggs-lt is safe to admit that it was before
Oscar Wilde's day, is it not2-my idea of a
triumph was to have as many and as violent
M No md ha Al:
to chill the blood
Now there is room for the exercise of any
amount OF taste in getting up Easter eggs.
ribbon effect is to be the aim of one basket
which is to be prepared bya professional con-
fectioner for Mrs. Brander Matthews. The
basket will be large and fiat, and the eggs will
encrcle, row after row, one in the center, all
lying on the lovely tinted gray-green southern
moss; the cOlors will all be aesthetic, delicate
shades, and the result is expected to resemble
the parterre Of maidens upon which the curtain
rises in Patience"
These delicate shades are inst the things
most easily achieved by the amateur, and all
sorts OF pretty arrangements can be made with
them. To my mind the basket saw last year
sent to Mrs. Frederick Freer, the wife of the
painter, by her friend, the wife of another
painter, Mrs. Walter Shirlow, was even pref
tier. / don't know whether or not it was Of
home manufacture, but it might easily have
been. 1t was lined with smilax, and on the
smilax were piled dozen green eggs Of every
shade from the lightest to the darkest. 1t was
as charniingly fresh and spring-like q bunch
OF mignonette. You see in this sort of scheme
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