Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1891-04-25
cOBWEB PARTIES.
One OF Fashions Games whsre All Find
Prizes Aud Fun And Food For Re-
Hectiou.
A cobweb partv Is great fun.

A cobweb party is great fun.
1t Is work, too-work for the nn'iable
and inventive hostess and most tam
talizing and pleasurable work for the
investigating guests. 1t is rs exciting
as n chase, with the game just beyond
the tips of your fingers, or the reach OF
your gun.
At first it seems rs il one were trying
10 catch a will-o'-thc-wisp or find the
bag of gold ut the root Of a rainbow.
In fact. the effect of the gay yarns,
worsteds Or ribbons (whcheyer one
chooses to use). crossed and recrossed
and intcrlaced and interwined. is not
unlike very beautiful rainbow. which
has at the end of each bright strand
real prize. Not the traditional bag o,
gold to he sure, but anything from
silken shoestring 10 n diamond pin, or
book, or picture, or anything ana
everything that ready inventive facul-
ty. artistic taste or fun loving fancy can
make or devise.
Cobweb parties may have a Juvenile
sound, but they are not for the enjoy
ment of rollicking youngsters; but for
the diversion of those who have
learned. as the years increased. TO rein
in their animal spirits and to take their
pleasure with certain amount of self
control.
So the hostess knows as she weaves
| her cobweb of ribbons for her party,
| that no matter how often they are
twisted and intertwisted by her there
will not be any fear of them getting in
to a hopeless tangle.
She takes rs many strands Of wor-
steds or yarn of ribbon rs the number
I of people she has invited, and fastens
at one end of each strand a prize.
! Some of the strands are yards and
yards in length and some are short
The prizes are snugged away in hooks.
under chairs, behind pictures up stairs,
| down in the cellar or up on shelf.
| The different strands are crossed and
woven and interviewer like the airy
threads of a cobweb The ends are left
within reach.
The guests are invited TO select n
strand and to find the other end OF II
which holds the prize. Each goes to
work and follows the wandcrings OF his
strand in the seemingly ineXtricable
mass OF bewildering twists aud turns
and colors.
It's great fun to watch the busy prize
seekers. At first il seems delicioGsly
silly; but the philosopher forgc,s the
fun of it as he marks how each one
works according to his temperament.
With what zest and energy and enthu
siastic haste one grabs his string and
follows its lead with eager expectancy,
With what slow deliberate inquiry
another pursues the windings Of hi:
strand! With what doubling timidity
and misgiviug another hunts for hi:
prize asking numberless questions and
having to be helped by his comrades il
the knotty places.
But cobweb parties are not intended
pr the entertainment Of philosophers
5ut to while away an evening in
Aovel and pleasant way. And they do
The most indifferent are piqued tt
action by having the thing they wisl
Just within possible reach. At the enc
. each one has his prize as satisfying
result of his labors; no matter II h'
found it behind a clock after many
times wandering about the room h'
. first entered or whether. after skirmish
ing down stairs into the cellar, VI
again. down and up the hall and II!
stairs to the garret aud down again tC
the drawing room to find the end o
his apparently endless strand that LED
him into diverse places in diverse
ways. fastened to gem OF n picture
which he is privileged to take away
with him to his own domicie and tel
ever after what time he had finding