Huntsville gazette., 1889-06-15
JOLLY LEMON PARTIES.


The Latest Fad in Washington Social
Entertainments.
1t seems as if the poor little lemon
had arrived at the height Of its useful
ness when made to do duty. with the
adjunct of ten cents worth of citric
acid for a barrel OF church lemonade,
but now the Progressive Lemon
Party" is brought to the front, and
here 1t plays part unassisted by any
chemical compounds of itself. A
prominent Washington lady issued in
vitations last week which read:
MRS. JONES.
~ At home, Tuesday, p. m.
Please bring lemon.
OF course every one who received
one of these mysterious summonses
was consumed by curiosity. 1t re-
minded one of the incident of South
ern Senator who received card with
the cabalistic letters signifying that
the owner had ''called in person"
Not understanding the card etiquette
of Washington he sent his card in re-
turn, with the letters rs. B. n" in
one corner. What could it mean? No
one seemed to know. so the recipient
determined to ascertain if possible
The next time he saw his friend he re-
marked: "Say, Senator, what do the
letters IS. B. NJ mean on your cardf"
''Why, sent by niger, of course"
lWhat could please bring a lemon"
meanP The only way 20 ascertain
seemed to be to comply with the invi-
tation. The Washington Market
seemed glutted with the meanest little
dried-up lemons ever seen. Tuesday
at seven p. m, with the lemons in
their hands. the guests presented
themselves at Mrs. Jones' hospitable
home They were shown into a charm-
ing little cloak room, with yellow dec
orations, and after removing wraps
were greeted by the hostess. who was
resplendent in black lace over lem
on-colored satin. and carried in her
hand an immense bunch of yellow
roses.
After greeting each guest, the host
css asked her to .'take her lemon to
the dining-room and register" The
dining-room was a blaze of golden
light from tiny fairy lamps with yell
low shades. The dining table had
lemon-colored silk napery, which was
relieved by fiat centerpiece of deli
cate ferns and Catherine Mermet
roses. At side table sat lady and
gentleman, who, all were informed.
composed the squeezing Committee. j."
This committee took the name on a
register, and tied a ribbon, marked in
such way as to be distinguishable.
on each lemon. After the arrival of
all the guests and the marking of all
the lemons, they were invited to again
assemble in the dining-room while the
''Squeezing Committee" counted the
seeds" Each lemon was cut in half,
the seeds extracted, and, after being
counted and duly accredited to the
owner on the register. they were
placed in beautiful transparent glass
bowl. The lemon was taken by the
squeezing Committee" and "squoze"
into an immense punch-bowl. The
guests were then invited to a repast
of strictly lemon-made edibles-lemon
Ice, lemon ice-cream, lemon cake,
lemon jelly, sardines and lemon, lem
on-cream pie, and every conceivable
sort of lemon-lavored food. Placed
beside each plate was bunch of yell
low roses, tied with a satin bow of the
same shade.
After partaking of this unique re-
past, the glass bowl containing the
seeds was placed on the table and
prize offered to her who should guess
the number of seeds therein, and a
"booby prize" to him who should
hazard the least accurate guess. After
numerous methods, both fair and foul,
had been resorted to, and each
"guess" had been duly registered, the
seeds were counted and the prizes
awarded. The winner of the grand
prize, coming within three of the cor
rect number, received an exquisite
lemon-colored glass lemonade bowl.
while the ''booby'' was made happy
with a wooden lemon-squeezer. A
prize was then awarded to her whose
lemon contained the most seeds, and
another to her who had the fewest.
Meanwhile, skillful hands had pre-
pared punch in the large bowl into
which the lemons were squeezed
Washington Letter,