The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-04-01

1t seems an odd thing in the telling but
some of the most elaborate dressmaking done
at this season goes into the costly demi-
toilets which women have made up to take
with them into the private hospitals. You
never thought of hospital as an arena for
dress display, did youl but it is becoming
such rapidly.
During Lent the private hospitals are full
The overworked society drudges retire for
a brief season to rest and recuperate in the
retreat provided by their favorite ply 81
clans, and where they CO. of coarse, their
gowns go also. Private hospitals increas,
in numbers every year, and their patients
are nearly all feminine. They deal with
disorders of every Species but those for nerv-
Gus diseases outnumber all the others and
are the ones whose beds are all taken during
the penitential season. The women who
send trunks filled with pretty tea gowns to
their doors are usually women of means ;
they need to have money, for the doctor
requires it at their hands, He charges them
from $50 to 300 per week for board, nurs-
ing and the sunlight of his own magnetic
presence and packs them away very fire.
quently in dismal little rooms as bare and
white as those of a monastery, quarters
which they would not put servant in at
home, but which they pay for without
murmuring at a summer boarding house
or hospital, coming back to them year
after year and feeling as certain of a rem
devious with acquaintance as at Saratoga
or Cape May
just now hospital society is in full swing.
Some three weeks ago Mrs. Seventeen
Engagements-in-an-Afte arrived She
was white, she had purple rings under her
eyes. She had a nervous twitching of her
eyelidS and her voice had a hysterical ring.
She told the doctor she was worn out with
devotion to social duties, and she went to
l. IL, r.. II l.
from the pillow to ask il Miss Dances-Six-
Miles-in- an- Evening or Mrs. Never-goes-to-
Bed Before Two O'clock in the Morning
were there this year. We're they expecting
Miss H. Her-Sixth-Season and who were the
most promising of the new peoples
At the expiration of a week Mrs. Has
Ruined-her -nerves-with- Tea is allowed to
visit her in her room. She throws a pink
crepe embroidered shawl over her shoulders
fer the occasion, letting it fall back to show
the newest thing in empire underwear. In
ten days she is able to spend an hour in the
music room, and great is the overhauling of
pretty negligees She must impress ner
hospital associate. Unless she be a habitue
of long and well established standing, her
whole position depends ON exhibiting the
proper cut and style. She has never been
reviewed in a dress parade so critical In
the world at large one can always retrieve
ones self. In the hospital one is lost il one
makes fdur pas
This ordeal over she chats daily in the
parlors and after three weeks treatment
invites Mrs. East Fifty-seventh street and
Miss West SEVENTEEN street, and few
Others Of equal note to a o'clock tea. There
is great jollity over the fragrant beverage
and mucn nbbling of forbidden bonbons,
to be put aside as hastily as il the corridor
teacher at a boarding school were heard
approaching, If the doctor raps and begs for
ten minutes relaxation at the festive gath
ering.
Two or three evenings after, there is
progressive card party and delightful
mystery envelops the winners prize. 1t is
a photo Of the doctor framed in ivory and
silver.
The doctor needs TO be a diplomat. He
must not loan portfolio Of engravings to
Mrs. X. unless he has some rare coins TO show
Mrs. Y. His wife must not send flowers to
Mrs. B. unless his daughter takes Mrs. g. to
drive. There was never such place for
small rivalries and cabals.
Tie distinction of social leadership is
eagerly sought and greatly priced. just
as the women begin TO get to- much Tor
tho doctor Easter COMES and the assemblage