Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-03-06
WOMAN AND HOME.
CONVERSATION, AND NOT THE
MENU, MAKES A GOOD DINNER.

American Women Do Not Smoke, but
Some of Them Triple on the Ouiet-A
Pleasant Party without Any Talking.
The Trials of Boarding-This and That.
have, for instance, heard of cultivated
and excellent woman who actually went
abroad because she either could not or would
not indulge in the costly modes of entertaining
adopted by some other social leaders of the
same city. Now this is, TO say the least, a
very narrow and perverted view to take of
the true province of entertainments
In what does the brilliancy of an entertain
ment consisti Assuredly not in the finsh Of
electric or gas light, mingling with the softer
rays Of waScn candles and modulated 1lumi-
nation. in terrapin and champagne, In inn
mense suits Of deliberately decorated apart
ments, or in the sheen of satin and sparkle of
diamonds. Docs our intellectual civilization
call this brilliancyl God forbid, These
things are nero accessories, effects produced
by a respectable army of workingmen and
women who have united their labor to pro
duce this result and are thankful that by so
doing they have gained an honest livelihood.
Ii the effect is not glaring and is devoid of
seeming display, then il is to the credit and
the good tasto of the person who has made
the outlay. But for all this the entertainer
and the entertained may bel do not say
they are, but | do say that they may very
readily be-very commonplace if not abso-
lutely uurehned people. The making of
money is not one of the fine arts, and the
people who have the knacll of making il most
rapidly are apt 10 come out of the trying or
deal-supposing them TO be natures diamonds
very rude, Jagged and uncut. They need
deal of polishing before they know how to
shine as brilliants of the first watar.
While on the other hand the vast body OF
our respectable families, who have been sat
lsiicd with moderate means, have lived in an
atmosphere of true refinement. We have
only 10 collect our senses and turn aside from
Micro glitter as meretricious, and disassociate
the Idea or money spending from our social
life, to regain the old standards.
Now, the first cardinal rule as to the real
elegance of an entertainment must be that II
Is the selection OF the guests, the character of
the people who assemble, which will 60 to
make it brilliant or the reverse One may
waste fortune in giving a dinner, as the
pagaDs have done before us and it will be
but vulgar affair at best If the guests are
not the chief attraction Happily, it is con-
versation, and not simply what one eats or
drinks, or has To offer, or display, that makes
dinner banquet fit for tho gods
Ii the people who have brain and culture
viii only be steadfast and fight it out on
this line and combine their forces, and let it
he understood that the canons OF good taste
will not tolerate mere display, then the own
ers OF millions who assume 10 dictate modes
and manners as social leaders, because they
are millionajres, will soon be made 60 under
stand that after all they have nothing TO
offer that is specially desira6ls to engraft
upon our social customs - Madeline V Dahl
gren in New York World