Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-07-04
THE BALCONY SALON
How the Summer Evenings Are
Whiled Away in Washington.
SEVERAL INTERESTING TALES.
How Shrewd Bride Worked Her Presents
Of silver-Repeated Finding OF Money-A
Rich Mans Gratitude to His Early Bene-
factor-Lost Millionaire in . German Town.

story telling The stay-at-homes have settled
down to their regular summer life and the
| favorite. and, indeed, the only social gather
| ings are those held on the front steps and
balconies of a few leading hostesses. No need
to indicate where these favored spots are, as
| everybody in the swim. to speak, could
| almost walk there blindfolded. Some of the
most entertaining of these chatty groups meet
on the front steps, the guests making a sort Of
| terrace out of themselves while they retail
the latest and best of city and seaside
gossip. One resort, which is only fair sample
of many others, is . broad veranda at the
back Of comfortable residence ON Desirable
avenue. and the people who gather there are
sure to find host and hostess amply able to
hold their own in any conversational contest.
GOOD STORYTELLING ABILITY REQUIRED.
OF course the life of these gatherings de-
ponds entirely upon the storytelling abilities of
each one present. To give the series any tone
it is necessary to have real lion or lioness oc-
casionally, when all the rest Of the company
may keep quiet and absorb information, which
they can in turn retail at the next balcony salon
they may attend. The informally and thor
ough sociability naturally stimulates the flow
OF gossip, and everybody grows more or less
confidential over their own and their neigh
bors affairs, and great quantity OF more or
less valuable information Is scattered abroad.
Some nights the stories all run to sentiment,
love affairs and past and prospective weddings,
for which state of mind the moon is held largely
responsible. At other times the worries of
business for a man or the last struggles with
dressmaker and other such trifing details will
have so far color ed the individual horizon that
the new or oft-told tales will have injected into
them a vein OF sarcasm.
The STARS balcony reporter is a good lis
tener. Here are some Of the stories heard
lately and remembered only to tell through
these columns:
sHREwD AND THRIFTY BRIDE.
Here is one just to show that even Cupid and
! all the other little winged gods have grown
wretchedly mercenary and thrifty. At one Of
the prettiest weddings Of the fiscal year Just
closing all the residents of Desirable avenue
attended the festivities and the chosen few
were let upstairs to look at the bridal gifts.
Piles and piles of glittering silver sure enough
! were there displayed in the most taking way.
There many sets of solid silver. tea
sets and dinner sets. that you could not but
| wonder what the young housekeeper ever
would do with the half Of them. Now here
comes the interesting part OF this true summer
story.
THE SILVER SENT BACK.
The bride was just much embarrassed as
anybody else with such an amount of unneces-
sary grandeur, but wisdom and she are twin
sisters. so the day after the wedding all the
silver went back to the stores from whence it
had come The thrifty bride had ordered sew
eral sets of it to be sent to her to choose from,
and it served its purpose beautifully. as all the
friends raved over it and rolled their eyes at
the extravagant fonttness of ma and pa for
their devoted daughter. Well-meaning but
deluded friends had also presented the charm
ing bride with spoons and ladies enough
to run a summer hotel. They will
be gratitied to learn that the bride
sold all she could Of it and purchased
from the proceeds a sumptuous outfit Of pur-
pie and fine linen to dazzle society again this
summer at the pretentious resort on the Allan
tic sea board where this happiest Of good look
ing couples are going to while away the mid
summer days. The moral of this story is don't
be stingy about wedding pre- sents, but give solid
silver, Tor 1t saves the brides feelings when
she is getting the jeweler to value it.
FIND OF sREESBAcKs.
The next story is equally harmless and guile
less, but deals with luck Of another variety A
lady was invited. with couple Of hundred
others. to an entertainment the past winter at
the residence of the Postmaster General. As
she about to cross the Threshold she found
on the marble sill small roll Of greenbacks
She handed it to the bright-eyed Buttons who
answered her ring with instructions to give il
to Mrs. Wanamaker. The little occurrence was
soon forgotten. Two three months later
she WAS again invited to the same house at n
the day. The sameness Of the story keeps
right on, for she was entering the door she
picked up. almost on the very same spot a
81 bill neatly folded. This time she was so
elated by her singular luck that she brought
the money straight to the lady who was repre-
senting the hostess in her absence. A statement
was made to the assembled guests that some
money was found. but nobody claimed it and
it was handed over to the artistic for whose
| benefit the entertainments was devised. The fun
of it comes in the fact that this lucky visitor
lost a gold bracelet at this door. while Secre-
tary and Mrs Whitney lived there. coming
from party one night. Fate has made these
two efforts to make even her loss and she now
desires to give public notice that for the
future she intends to keep all the money she
| finds on Mr. Wanamaker's front door steps.
NO ESCAPE FROM THE TIPPING SYSTEM.
At this season, when SO many Washingtoni-
ans seeking health and pleasure in Europe
and finding already that their letters of credit
| ought to have had a much wider margin if
they are to keep on tipping as generously rs
everybody does the first weeks Of foreign
tour, this little tale Of more less woe will
meet a sympathetic audience outside of those
who heard it told. The lady began her story
| with the remark: well. you might az well 'tip
on their native shore or they will follow you
home" This seemed little too strong a
statement. even for the gullibly inclined
auditors. Then she proceeded to explain.
Leaving of the largest Paris hotels before the
rest of her family she also left them the bills to
settle and the tips to distribute. Months elapsed
| before she returned to this city. A few DAYS
afterward the garcon who had waited upon her
family whenever their meals was served in their
rooms called to see her, much to her astonish-
ment. He told her he was about to try his for
| tunes in this country, &c, but especially he
called to say how sorry he had been that she
had left the Paris hotel before he had chance
| to thank her for previous favors. Now, as q
stranger in a strange land, he begged Of her
the price of q walters jacket, as preliminary
to his getting employment in neighboring
| hotel. The lady saw at once there was no es-
to start the robber at his trade here. The moral
| Of this story is that you can't escape the feeling
system, and you may as well pay the coin Of
| tribute first as last.
RICH MANS GRATITUDE.
Here are two more sample stories with first
class and summer-proof morals attached and
every word true. But that is the popularity
of all these tales. Somebody was recountlnR
the social success of young matron in this CITY
and 1t gave somebody else u chance to tell the
story OF her fathers modest beginning in life
and the great wealth he has accumulated. But
long after his financial fame Is forgotten this
story OF his gratitude will be told. When a
boy he had no home except that given him bv
good woman who kept the then Fashionable
boarding house on Pennsylvania avenue. She
gave the boy all the advantages she could ont
side Of his working hours and finally through
some OF her congressional bosrders got him q o.
tsnfr, tod h.