San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-06-21
WOMAN AND HOME.

A NEW YORK LADY TELLS HOW TO
CONDUCT A MUSICALE.
An English Gentleman's Opinion - Good
Words for the Mother-in-Law - Little
Stories About women-Hints on Health
and the Household.
The strictly fashionable, correct New York
musicale is as solemn as an evening funeral,
and as stupid as a love scene in the originals;
no one enjoys it but the performers. think,
without question, that you can manage to
spend more money and make larger pro-
portion Of your guests uncomfortable at
musicale than at any other form of enter
tainment yet devised. In the first place there
are the invitations, which must be engraved
and read something like this:
: Mr.. and Mrs Smith request the pleasure of
Dir. and Mrs Jones company on Monday at
.3p NJ. Music
R S.V.P
You send three invitations two or three
weeks ahead to insure the presence of someo Of
your guests, for people always avoid musi-
Gale if possible, as they do an appointment
with dentist or an interview with a credit
or. Then you set about procuring your tai
ent for the occasion, and mortgage most of
your property to pay them. You must send
a carriage for every artist separately, for
they are usually such autagonistic rivals that
they couldn't he expected to ride the length OF
the block in the same vehicle You furnish
them with flowers, add your unbounded graf
itude to the modest sum you pay and dress
yourself in some quiet home dress, with no
bonnet or glove, to receive your guests. Some
times YOU give a musical luncheon, where you
vary the programme by inviting small num-
Der of your most intimate friends 10 luncheon
and have the music afterward, to which 1t Is
quite CONNIE il faut to invite as many people
as you can accommodate in your rooms,
though they were not present at the luncheon.
Musical breakfasts are on the same general
order, occurring little earlier in the day,
though l o'clock is the fashionable hour.
Sometimes the music precedes the breakfast,
and frequently band of concealed musicians
play through the meal as well.
The style Of music is extremely classical
and very heavy. We are so cultured and
melodious now that we don't enjoy any har-
mony that we really can understand, and we
talk very knowingly of shading and motives
touch and phrases and expression, though, of
course, we don't know what any of it really
means The others donot understand either,
so it doesn't signify; no one knows if you
make a mistake A stylish musicale is hard
ly complete now without the Hungarian
band, and the leader of that peculiar institu-
ton has been so hattered and feted in Ameri-
ca that he forgets sometimes that he was
once hired as a kind of upper servant by the
Countess Esterhazy's father, who employed
him to entertain his guests as he hired the
butler to pour their wines. Mrs. Hicks-Lord
was converSant of the fact, and when, on a
somewhat recent occasion, she paid 5000 or
$500 for his services, and he asked in addition
to be presented to her guests, she aired her
knowledge of his former situation with great
promptitude.
If you really want to spend money on a
musicale you can invite your personal friends
to entertain the guests instead of hired
operate stars. Of course, they don't charge
you anything, as they are not professional;
you just make them some little trihing pres
ents of brown stone block, carriage and
horses diamond tiara and some other little
things of that kind, and remain forever under
a burden of gratitude besides. 1t is like hav-
ing tickets sent you for the theatre or opera
by friend; you have to give them some
thing in return that costs more than box in
the grand row.
A musicale returns any kind of an obliga-
tion-a dinner, luncheon, reception or tea
and costs more than all of them in one. Some
people give a series of musicales, three or four
in number, but one handsome musicale in the
season is all that is really required or often
given. Interview in New York Sun.