The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-04-10


ladies Of Jersey CITY, and respectfully
anodtes their cooperation M making
this column a feature Of general inter
est and utility. Information and satg-
gest6o1as are earnestly solicited, and
assurance is gioen that all commupi-
cations aoiU geceiUe Immediate and
careful attention, and WSW be regarded
as strictly confidential If the aorSteas so
desire.
In "Othello,n some being with an
tiquated notions observes, poor and
content is rich, and rich enough"
Very few poor Of moderately poor
people are contented now. Luxury is
so much the order of the day that too
much effort is universal. In families
where the man is receiving $780, 900 a
year the women are struggling to ap-
pear moderately we'll dressed and
have their dinners served in courses.
This incurs great labor in a small
household; in fact, in one case to u
AIIOWICORCs IL GdhCc OAC mOAAcAAt "AO
has great taste, all day to arrange the
dinner so that everything shall be
properly served. This epidemic of
luxury has touched all classes, each in
in their degree.
In England the court dinner hour
remained at eleven from the reign Of
Edward ~. to that of Henry VII,
but the lower class dined at nine or
ten. The fashionable hour in Henry
VIII IS reign was twelve. 1t has taken
a century to make dinner two hours
later, and four of them to make the
change from Henry Wills twelve
noon to Victoria's nine or half-past
nine in the evening.
No one could look at Henry's pic
ture without knowing he must have
been fond of good living. A sirloin
and a tankard of ale was his line; but
probably he would have had any n
decapitated who monkeyed with the
tablecl0th. Now we are told that Vic
toria's attendants are so expert that
her cloth is changed three times at
every dinner without the change be
ing noticed. Perhaps prestidigitateurs
are employed in high places for these
jobs.
She begins her dinner on a plain
Saxony linen, and eats the middle
courses on an embroidered cambria
article, winding up on a panelled Rus
sian table cover filled with lace. If
this was the style Albert Edward was
brought up in at home, why. natur-
ally when any of our American queens
set out to have him come to dinner,
they are a little anxious. 1t seems
that when Mrs. Mackay invited him
| to dinner on "Wednesday night she
sent, as is customary in such cases,
the bill of company and of fare for his
approval. Other ladies who want to
ask him had better take warning, and
be sure and let him know what he is
going to have, for he is very touchy.
Now, Mr.. Mackay has a very deli
cate, heightened method of his own,
and when Mrs. Mackay's daughter was
married to Prince de Galatre, although
he had only promised a dowry of
So, 200 a year, he slipped a paper con-
tanning his check for 81, 900, 900 into
lmony. 1t is possible that this is the
way Albert Edward is managed. 1t
may be that his first napkin contains
a quarter of a million, and his menu
and boutonniere similar sums, and, as
atthese dinners there are alwaysfavors,
another delicate compliment was
probably conveyed to him in that
shape.
AS luxury can be carried no further,
efforts are made for novelty of effect in
table decorations. At a dinner last
season at Mrs. Bostwick's, at which the
Flaglers and Rockafellers were among
the guests, the large round table was
arranged to represent a wheel, the
roses in the centre being the hub from
which pink satin ribbons radiated to
the outer edge, terminating with the
names of the guests printed on each in
gold letters at their proper seats at the
table. The favors at each place We're
small silver boxes containing elegant
articles of jewelry.
At an entertainment given by Mrs.
Ogden Goelet the flowers consisted of
bouquets of magnificent roses of all
the most beautiful varieties tied with
wide satin ribbons. They were
brought into the room on the backs of
two immense peacocks, four feet in
height, the bodies of which were made
of wicker work, with tails of real
feathers. Considering all that is re-
CURED of the chefs in these establish
ments, it does not seem as if they re-
ceived adequate compensation. What
is $40, 600 a year for Cornelius Wander
bilt to give his cook? Or SO, 500 for w.
d. Sloan to give Henri Matthew?
John Jacob Aston never gave but
81, 900 a year to his skilled French
cook, and it seems that the late Mrs.
Astor preferred very plain living, as
people sometimes do who can have
either. She employed an old Mary
land auntie to prepare her special
viands. Both of the cousins, j. J..
Aston and w. w. Aston, the young
men, are said to be very plain in their
tastes, and to order tea and steak, or
something of that style, when they go
into Delmonico's for their luncheon.
Jay Gould gets along personally also
on the simplest diet, his dinner hour
being eight o'clock. He gives two
cooks 81, 500 each, and keeps no end of
other servants. The we'll known after
dinner speakers are habitually light
eaters and drinkers. Chauncey M.
Depew occasionally takes a sip or two
of champagne, but that is all. Joseph
H. Choate rarely empties his first
glass, and William M. Evarts always
stops with the second glass. The
fashion was evidently veering toward
a late dinner hour in Pope's time, or