Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-06-07


"days ut home" were as famous Ms her
parties end her ceremonious dinners. of
winch she gave one week and sometimes
:wo. Secretary and Mrs. Knox, big
and witty woman, gave magnificent ban.
1uets, and her home was ''the resort of
the intellectual and cultivated. the diplo.
matic and fashionable" Sir John Tenn
pie madc it point to call upon every
stranger of note Immediately upon his mr..
oval i'll New York, and Lady Temple gave
costly dinners every week to twenty OF
more guests.
Mrs. Washington, unlike the Presi
dent, was i'll satisfied with the cminencc
Of her position and its accompanying
grandeur "Therc are certain bounds
tor me whic.: must not depart from, +"
She wrote ut this time to Fanny Washing.
ton, 'and rs l cannot do as 1 like am
obstinate and stay Mt home great deal. u
Mrs. Washington was always cat homen
In her Franklin street residence on each
Friday evening from till 10 o'clock, re.
ceiving all whose social position, official
station or established merit entitled them
10 come. Full dress was required and
dignity and formality prevailed, but tc
eyes looking back carefully one hundred
years there seems little that speaks posi-
lively of anything but high-bred and dub
aonven;ionality. Very possibly little
soreness was left in Mrs. Washingtons
heart mt the treatment she had received
from the sisters of these women, if moi
the women themselves, at the time of the
war, when actually an important ball was
postponed in Philadelphia rather than
have her included among their own
grandces.
Besides these hospitablc and fashiona.
bic women, and the others mentioned ir
the list of those at the ball, which list is
practically blue book of 1888, Other
New York women entertained equally
well. There were Mrs. Livingston, tho
mother of Chancellor Livingston. and
Mrs. James Beekman, with her beautiful
mansion and the famous greenhouse, the
lirst upon Manhattan Island, beneath
which was buried the Bcckman treasure,
81 silver and china during their sever
years exile, and in which grew lemons
which Mrs. Bcekmau herself made into
lemonade before the Presidents ewes.
lhcn, too, were Mrs. White Eve Var
Cortland0 and the Bayards and the Lud
lows. All these leaders of the day had
homes emincntly fitted for the rcccption
81 the guests, some of the houses being
really paatal in their beauty, evidences
81 this being shown even till to-day in the
)nc or two examples still left, the most
notable instance being, perhaps, tn,
Roger Morris mansion. still standing IN
dignity beside the Changing Elevated
Road i'll Harlem, and pointed out to tho
SiShtseer as the home of Nine. .urnel
aaron Burr's cratic sweetheart and after
ward his wife. There was the famou,
old Walton House in its prime, the pride
oi Pearl street, with its grand mahogan,
staircase occupying the center of thu
house, some Of the rooms panncled will
oak, richly carved, while the walls O.:
other rooms were hung with STAMPED
leather, heavily gilded. Over the front
door was cut i'll stone the Walton coat-of
arms, and within it was maeniticicntl,
furnished, its gliding. carving. tapcstries
carpets and gold and silver plate being
the talk OF the town. and were, without
doubt, responsible for Mr.. Walton, who
was Il wealthy merchant, Icing known
ianniiarly as Boss Walton
The Kennedy House, next door 10 the
famous no. l Broadway, was another
house that gave every evidence of having
been planned by nm artistocrat for profusc
rud elegant hospitality. Here were
white marble maaic!- pieces, carved with
lriczc OF acanthus, and decorated with
heads crowned with curs and studded
with anaranth. Immense mirrors
'eachcd from floor 10 ceiling, and q heavy
mahogany staircase responded to the
Touch Of lightly flying lis we'll rs martial
feet. Given houses like these, it is easy
to imagine what the scene Of beauty and
Saycty must have been. Imagine what Il
background these yellow and brown
walls, the polished floors, Tie scances
with their twinhling cantilc-hghts. the
glittering mirrors and the unoltrusivc
windows must nave made for the gay.
soft sweeping gowns, :ind the kcrch;cfs
and the snowy Iccks and bare arms, sad
the powdered hair piled on cushion.
and the delicate feet in high-hecled
bucklcd slices! Dresses of India silk
and satin petticoats with sacgues of silk
were worn BY the women in those DAYS.
and the men were no less elegant in their
attire Of velvet, laced neckcloths and silk
stockings. In the gardens that stretched
behind the houses sauntcred the beauties
Of the day in pctticoats OF satin and
sacques Of silk with long PORTED waists
gathered at the peak with gold IN cords
and nebulous with lace, while by their
side bent gallants who wore. perchance,
like Mr.. Walton in Ii portrait, brown
velvet coat with long tapped waistcoat
of white satin, or yet again like Wash
ington at his Inauguration, in suit of
dark cloth, with metal buttons, white
silk stockings and shoes with plain silver
shoe-buckles.
The party gowns Of the women of 1889,
with little undermining, would not do
Ill for to-day, though we can never hope
to approach their gorgeous brocades.
Surely our bellies are one afteranother put
ting their hair on rolls up from their faces !;
they wear simple strings of pearls about
their necis, decolete bodices, stifry
q Ga,