, 1890-01-19

be kindly enthusiastic, but, until COM
paratively recently, society at large has
taken the matter with the degree of
calmness e~ngendered by familiarity, and
has not been shaken to the core over the
announcement that one more young girl
is emancipated from the thralldom of
school. Nowadays, however, the entrance
into society of a daughter of the house
is a matter of considerable moment.
So far as the actual event is concerned
it may be a simple or an elaborate one,
according to inclination of the family
taste and purse. Many young women
enter the social arena by way of a .
o'clock tea, others through the medium of
a ten thousand-dollar coming out ball
the etiquette prescribed in either case is
the same. To lead up to the climax,
neither ito the lesser or the greater
function, it appears to be possible that on
the part of the mother or other c~haperon
a considerable amount of Judgment or
the reverse may be displayed.
The exact age for a fashionable yo n
woman to make her bow before her
world is not set down with deinitive GER
tainty. The best authorities agree thai
anywhere from II to 20 it may happen.
Before II is unadvisable, unless a bevy
of girls but little younger are crowding
the debutante outof the s~choolroom, and
later than 20 is perhaps unnecessary, ex-
cept where two or three unmarried sis.
tiers are still on that portion of the social
carpet allotted to the family. Under
these circumstances an entrance into
society may be judiciously delayed and
without explanation. Debuts usually
take place at the beginning of the win
ter's gayety. The post-Lenten season is
SO brief that n young girl would scarcely
be introduced before the exodus to Eu-
rope begins, followed by the hegira to
the different summer resorts, and society
is not massed again until the snow flies.
A spring debutante would thus have
the onus of one season without the pleas
ure and profit which ought to accrue
from its duration. No chaperon makes
any such blunder as that. What the
wise mamma does, however, during the
short Easter squirt is to let the intelli-
gence become general along the fashioha-
BILE line of club oom and boudoir that
the coming season will find her daughter
among the debutantes, and especially will
she essay to enlist an interest in her
charges behalf with such society leaders
whose favor or disfavor will contribute
largely to the future ''bud's" success or
failure. This done she carries the embryo
belle off to Europe, if possible, for a hasty
trip, presumably to order the coming out
rousseau. Whether such be actually the
case or not, the trip p~resupposes it and
gives to the New York toilets, if they
must be such, an imported halo accepted
as very desirable. Speaking of this, by
the way, it is related of a young New
York girl who was so addicted to the pur-
chase of garments brought from the other
side that on the occasion of her first visit
to a well known modiste in Paris she
asked thoughtlessly to be shown some
Imported wraps"
Imported, mademoisellel' exclaimed
the astonished Frenchwoman. Import
ed from where, please?" And then
''mademoiselle" realized that she was on
their native heath.
To return to the etiquette of debuts.
Just before the formal event the young
'woman's mother and her elder unmar-