Morning journal and courier., 1889-12-05
CLAwHA MMERS AND BREECHES. An Innovation that has Torn Up the Choicest of Chicago Society.
 IErom tha Chicapo Herald 1

From the Chicago Herald.l
 The last dancing party of the Kenwood Club, the pride of that aristocratic and exclu- sive part of the city, was marked by e sensa. tion. The club was the first of the family clubs that is, clubs where the ladies of mem- bers' families enjoy all the privileges except voting to be established in or about Chica go. The membership began with thirty, and is now 300, the full limit, with bulletin board full of the names of applicants waiting for chance. The original initiation fee was $25; it is now $100. Then, too, the club danc es begin early, often at 9:30, and it is state occasion when dancing is kept up after mid- night.
 By g o'clock on the evening of the last par ty nearly all the elect of Kenwood were pres- ent. Suddenly, and with common impulse every eye was fixed on 8 set in the very cen- Ire of the floor. What was ita Had some misguided young woman from Chicago been rash enough to come in street costumea No; a glance satisfied the assemblage that the four ladies were in the most charming of full dress toilets. And their partners-had some callow youth from Hye Park dared to enter the sacred precinct of the Kenwood Club in a Prince Albert or a cut-awsy costs each was faultlessly arrayed in clawhammer, vast ex- panse of shirt front. and regulation choker. Satisfied on this point every eye turned low CT. An, the sensation at last! Knickerbock- ersl
 The orchestra struck up waltz-quadrille. It was useless. Nobody paid the slightest heed. What show did music stand beside the poetry of knicksrbockerss The leader grasped the situation, and the orchestra stop. ped. A moment of breathless silence, and sigh of relief went up from 500 breasts at once. The knickerbockers are we'll filled. Then the msuic struck up again, and the quadrille began. But all sorts of queer things happened. Young men whispered airy noth- fy1ru fvPr 0tyn o,6 naHk nndn glances toward eyes that were fixed elsewhere Maidens forgot to courtesy and got hopeless ly mixed up in the laidies, chain. It wasspain- fully evident that their thoughts were else- where. Trousers sink into insigniGcanee in the presence of knickerbockers. In the mean time four pairs of trimly ht- ting knickerbockers were unconoernedly pur- suing the even tenor of their ways. Four pairs of black, silk stockings over four pairs of the shapeliest of calves were gracefully threading the mazes of the dance. Four pairs of dainty patent-leather pumps were gliding easily over the polished floor, and four pairs of silver buckles on four pair of pumps twinkled in the brilliant light of the chande- 1 Hers.
 Boys? Oh, mo- Two of the wearers of the sensations. though young in all that makes youth young, were men who have made names l for themselves in the business world of Chi cago. Ono was gentleman whose gray hair and beard bore evidence that he had passed some time ago the half mile post of three score and ten. He lives in handsome house | on Woodlawn avenue, and his firm does no inoonsiderable part of the wholesale and re-
 tail china, glassware and crockery business of
 this city. The eleanly shaved face and eye \ glasses of the second were topped by locks l with which the hand of time had also been
 busy. His name is prominent in the insu- rance districts of La Salle street, and his
 residence is one of the ornaments of Drexel
 boulevard. The other two gentlemen in the
 set were his sons, young men just attaining
 their majority.
 In the secrecy ot card room, with closed
 doors, there was g consultation of the trou'
 sers late that night. What was resolved is
 not definitely known, but it is understood
 that the fat and the lean kin were arrayed in
 bitter oppositions. All sorts of rumors are
 current, and in consequence the next club
 party is awaited with feverish impatience by
 the members, and especially those members
 who cannot vote.