St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-02-03
How the Agony of After
noon Receptions Comes
On.
Debts of Honor That Involve
Debts for Rented Brio
a-Bpac.
Leading characteristics of
Entertainers Well Known
to the 400.
Mrs. Merriam, Mrs. White,
Mrs. Stone, Mrs. Frost
and Others.

You sit at ease in loose wrapper be-
fore the CRATE, recalling the people to
whom you are socially in debt when
your conscience becomes irritated pleas
antly as with the shortcomings of your
next door neighbor. You ought to give
party-that's clear. AS you comfOrta
bly, mediate upon the duty, it begins to
be discharged. There's an od0r of flow
ers in the air. Yonr ear catches faint
strains of music, there is hum of
voices mingled with it.and the confused
Swr'r'r of swaying bodies and swishing
skirts that comes and goes as your mind
Wanders uncertainty from an afternoon
reception to a dance. As yet giving
party means nothing more definite than
some kind of entertainment that will
balance your social account for the sea-
son. You are wearing new gown;
there is not wrinkle it; it pinches
you in no place, and it is
just the color and fabric most
becoming to your style of beauty.
Everything goes on smoothly. There
is not a doubt in your soul but the small
quantity of salad you ordered will hold
out, and not ghost of Il fear haHntS
you that the bric-a-brac you have bOr-
rowed and rented for the occasion will
be broken. Nobody appears to be
bored. You have created so much hap
pineSs about you that your spirit gloWS
with calm satisfaction, and looking
over your drawing room upon your
guests, you have all the sensations
and finding it to be good. So much for
your party when you build it of air.
But the season wears On, and you are
positively ashamed to face your social
creditors. You staid away from the
last german because you felt you would
represent so many unpaid dinners to
this one and to that one, dancing
party due to Miss Stlckney, Miss Wild
er, Miss Bigelow and Miss Smith, and
various |. o. us to Miss White, Miss
Smythe, Miss McLaren, Mrs. Morton,
Mrs. Pope and Mrs. Newell; and you
have even stopped going to church Oh
Sunday to escape having to listen
to any chance reference to a
day OF reckoning. Finally, you tell
William it has got to be done-yOu must
give an affair of some sort, and William,
il he doesn't make a few disagreeable
wives and martyred husbands, bids You
not to bother him with it. He may sug-
gest that you make it then party" as
he will doubtless put it in the common
language that is polished enough for
man and wife in everyday, private
intercourse. Any obligations he is
under to men he will discharge at the
club. You do not. on this occasion, as
you did the first time after you were
married that William proposed enter
tanning his friends at the club, go into
Mysteries, declaring he has ceased to
love you and is ashamed OF you and
your housekeeping. Like sensible,
experienced matfon, you SOberly con-
slider the notion of an afternoon tea, and
consider i'll turn, too, progressive
eIchre party and a dancing party. The
inconvenience of each are so great, you
sigh forlornly and wish you were d. II.
Wilder and could rent the Ryan, or that
you were an unincumbered
BACHELOR LIKE MIR. PATTERSON.
and could keep your record up with
charming, care-free dinners at the Town
and Country. But the inevitable must
be faced. A euchre party has its adj
vantages. The house is small, but it
opens up prettily. You can have re-
freshments served on the card tables,
and by moving the side board into the
kitchen, with the aid of a few coIored
lights and new draperies that you can
have sent up from the store on approval
and return next morning. the dining
room will look very we'll. You can re-
fer to the people who play in there as
being in the breakfast room. and the
be increased that much for the
evening, but some folks will get
the idea, and keep it, that your
house really includes an apartment as
English as breakfast room. Elaborate
floral decorations are not necessary;
bouquet here and there in Dresden
vases or cut glass jars, which you can
rent for the evening by paying Is per
cent of their value, will answer. Piano
lamps and Dresden OF antique brass
candelabra will light the rooms prettily.
and you will arrange the different hued
shades with considerable regard for the
coloring of the woman the light is to
fall upon. When she discovers the nice
arrangement-as she will the instant
she is seated-she will love you and be
true to you for whole evening. You
can find something about the house that
will do for prizes. If they don't amount
to much, well enough. Nobody pays
any attention to them, anyhow: few be-
sides the winners ever know what they
are, and when with well-bred reluctance
you give tho names of your guests to
the society reporter, you can exhibit
great originality and strength of char
aeter replying to her request to know
the prizes, that you consider it very bad.
form to publish to the world the little
souvenirs with which you reward your
friends success at cards in your home.
Another convenience of a euchre party
is that you seat your guests at the tables
and they are Off your hands. Their
amusement is before them, and if they
have dull time it is their fault and
none of yours. You really believe
you'll make it euchre-but, oh, dear!
you can't possibly crowd in more than
twenty tables, and that won't begin to
balance your account There are 200
persons if there is one in this town you
must invite, and of course all of them
would be sure to accept if you hadn't
room for half. What can you do?
A dancing party is such an expense.
There is $50 for the music. unless you
conceal a cheap orchestra behind
screen of palms and make telling
comment now and then about the charm
of Seibert's music. There is $50 for
flowers, at the very least and then you
have more of a suggestion of limited
means than anything startling in the
way of decoration. All the furniture
from the drawing room, parlOr and din
ing room must be carted into the barn,
and Williams bedroom and yours up
stairs must have every trace of the
sleeping apartment removed, so that
e,,y>nor n no cayyod fbnra Spnnar-