Huntsville gazette., 1891-04-11
SOCIAL ASSEMBLIES.
Early Gatherings of the Elite of Ole-T.r1e
Philadelphia.

Philadelphia.
AS early as 1740 dancing assemblies
were held in staid old Quaker Philadel-
phia, much to the horror and despair of
the Friends of that day, who viewed
with CONSERVATION this encroachment
upon their simple mode of living, these
foreign fads and fancies, the attendant
extravagancies in dress, the ffirtations,
and to them dreadful dissipations which
followed in the wake of the assembly.
In those primitive times the subscribers
were all men, each one being taxed the
overpowering sum of forty shillings. 1t
forty shillings represented an imposing
sum of money in the pre-revolutionary
days. The menu consisted of ''piclxled
oysters and bread and butter" What
they drank is not so clearly stated but
it can be safely put forward that this
part of the bill of fare was well cared
for. When we contrast ''pickled oys-
ters and bread and-butter'' with Sherry's
menu of bouillon en- tasse, huitres
Bechamel aux truffes, terrapin, aspic
de foie gras, gelee aux fruits. cham
pagne, etc, one wonders at the mar
vellous improvement and endurance in
the short space of one hundred and fifty
years in the appetites and digestions of
the elite of our American social world.
Z Blank cards did not exist, and all in
vitations were printed or written on
the backs of playing-cards Thus Mrs.
Willing, or Miss Hopkinson, or, let us
say, Tilghman, received her invita-
tion from the jack of diamonds, the
queen of clubs, or the king of hearts.
One of these invitations ran thus: .'The
gentlemen of the army present their
compliments to Mrs. Jeykell and beg
the favor of her company to a ball at
the state house Monday next. Satur-
day, September 20, 1755." This Mrs.
Jeyken was a celebrated belle in her
day, daughter of Edward Shipper,
first mayor of the Quaker City. Car
riages too were rareties in those early
periods of society, and it was no un
common sight to see ladies going to the
assembly on horseback in all their
feathers and furbelows. What sight
it would make if one of our society
leaders rode down Fifth avenue, we
will say, at eleven o'clock at night, clad
in one of Worths elaborate creations,
and incased in a dream of an evening
wrap from Pingot or Felix, for the pur-
pose of reviving colonial customs! Here
is an opportunity for immortal fame.
The dowagers usually indulged in
rubber of whist while the dancing was
going on; '.wall- flowers existed
even at that remote period, and the
music was usually furnished by colored
fddlers. Even as far back as the mid
die of the last century there were rival
''cliques' or '.sets" in the fashionable
world, often caused by political con-
troversy, and Philadelphia saw the
Cotillon spring up to antagonize the
city assembly. With the breaking out
of the war of the revolution, the assem-
bly, and other kindred trivialitics passed
momentarily out of existence. The
same gallants who, with their satin
coats and ruffles, their dress-hangers
and powdered perul1es, flirting and
carousing away their time, gave way at
once to the colonial soldier, ready to
fight and die if need be for the new re-
public; and within stone s-throw of
where the city assembly used to meet
in joyous company the Declaration of
Independence was read, the liberty bell
pealcd forth its tocsin of defiance to old
England, and later still the first con-
gress of the United States met in solemn
conclave.
The city assembly was revived in 1900,
with subscription of twenty dollars,
and endured until 1915. There was then
an interregnum until 1917, when an at
tempt was made to resuscitate it, but
finding the Cotillon party too strongly
intrenched in social favor, the attempt
was abandoned and not renewed until
1925, when the Cotillon party gave up
the ghost, and the assembly strobe once
more to the fore, and has remained in
active operation up to the present day,
giving every year series of magnifi-
cent balls, attended by the descendants
of all that is aristocratic in Philadelphia
society, and also by privileged guests
from all parts of the country. ry.-Harpers
Bazaar.