Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-04-17
SOCIETY In WASHINGTON.
Fortunes Spent for Visiting and Menu
Cards.
Feasts in C0lOrs Mrs. Frank Leslie 5
Diamonds Card Etiquette and
English SpObbery-Sired
Wealth.

W tdllH.
WASHINGTON -Five Hundred thousand
visiting cards have been engraved II
Washington this season. 0le stationery
firm tells me that it has turned out BOO. 00(
in the last two months and the money
spent here on rasteboard during season
amount to tens of thousands Of dollars
The most ordinary card costs a cent apiece
after the plate is made and some of the
dinner invitations sent out cost Sl0a dozen,
A prominent item on the expense account
of a. Washington belle is her engraving,
and printing, and society ladies who give
dinners spend at times hundreds Of dollars
upon the stationery for feast Mrs lie
land Stanford lately paid ss5 for fifty cards
to be used as menus for one of hel big din
ners. The man of the United States was
stamped in silver on the cards and the draw
ings and engTayings were exquisite. AT the
dinner which Gen. Breckidridge gave a
week or 50 ago the cards cost 81 apiece,
and Mrs. Justice Batchford gave not long
ago luncheon the cards for which were
carved by hand at cost Of SIS per dozen.
No one thinks of giving a big dinner with
out something fancy in way Of cards and a
great many of the menus are hand-painted.
Some of the cards are in raised silver and
gold They look as though the gold and
silver had been melted and poured into
letters on the cards. They cost Is cents
apiece. Others are drawn IN black, and ii
Is quite the thing to make the name card
which goes with each plate so pretty that
it may be carried away as a souvenir.
Society runs to colors this winter, and
it is the fashion to have dinners and teas
of one hue There is the pink dinner, the
raw-red tea aud the orange-hued luncheon.
Each dinner must have flowers and hang
ings of the color after which it is named,
and Roswell P. Flower gave a viole. din
ner at which even these name cards each
bore a hand-painted violet red dinner
at the Normandie had table in the cen
ter which was an immense mat of tulips,
The candelabra glowed under red shades,
and the dinlng-rOom was one mass of car
dInal, AT an orange tea on X street for
the Newsboys Home the fashionable re-
celving party We're clad In yellow The
tea-room decorations were of golden, and
one table had an immense centerpiece of
yellow tulips, while the other contained
big jars Of jonquils There were yellow
under it. There was orange cake, orange
ice. orangeade, and everything which
tended to destroy the complexion of pref
ty girl and to make some faces horrible.
Postmaster General Wanamaker gave a
State dinner in which all the decorations
We're of white and green The centerplece
OF the table was an oval vase which rested
upon silyer-rimmed mirror About this
was laid a circle of cut lilies of the valley
and outside of that circle Of maidenhair
ferns. Around the table were four high
vases piled with marguerites and lilies of
the valley. and across the cloth were
strewn fronds of fern, and below the board
the table-cloth was festooHed with aspara-
gus vines. At each plate was d bouquet
of white yiolets and lilies Of the valley and
these were tied with white ribbons. The
white tapers cast a soft light through
white shades as they burned in silver can
delabra. and the decorations Of the room
were all IN white and green Another of
w anamaker s dinners was in red and yell
low, and the table had spiral center of
red and yellow tulips Senator Jones of
Nevada, the silver millionaire, gave a din
ner on the lst of March, at which the
decorations were of white and gold and
silver by the pound was used to furnish part
of the white. Silver hligree dishes stood
at either end of the table. and these were
filled with Jonquils. The silver Candida
bra were low and they bore gold and white
shades The candy dishes were Of white
and gold and the only green about the
table was an oval mound of maidenhair
ferns, which rested in its center. Mrs.
Senator Stewart, the wife of the other Ne
vada millionaire, gave a pink feast not
long,ago and ON each lady s plate there was
a bunch Of la France roses and the candel-
abra east soft light through pink shades.
The dinner s0uveniers We're hand-painted
menu cards tied with bright pink ribbons.
on which each guests name was traced in
gold. At dinner given TO the Pan-Amer-
leans in February, the decorations of a
avenue mansion were all in
red and yellow, and Mrs Representative
Scranton during the same month gave
yellow luncheon, at which the bouillon
was served in gold cups, and the button
hole bouquets were in jonquils.
The flowers ut these dinners cost their
weight in silver and senior Mendoza Of
Brazil gave dinner on Washington
at which his house was decorated
with orchids brought from Brazil and
which he honored the United States by
decorating the table and dishes with red,
white and blue One of the plants al
this dinner contained over fifty flowers
Mrs Senator Coekrell gave au orchid lunch
Inns month, and at many OF the dinners
and receptione Of the past season roses
nave been use3 by the bushel. II is i'm
possible to describe the grandeur Of the
toral decorations Of the White House at a 4
tate reception or dinner The flowers
used cost several times AN ordinary mans |
monthly salary and were it not for the |
net that Uncle sam tnni,he, the most Of /
mem they would make quite hole in
resident Harrison S EXPENSE account The I