Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-21
COBwEB PARTIES,
One OF Fashions Games Where All Find
Prizes and Fun and Food for Reelection.

One OF Fashions Games Where All Find
Prizes and Fun and Food for Reflection.
From the New York Herald.
A cobweb party is great fun.
1t Is work. too-work for the amiable and
inventive hostess and most tantslixing and
pleasurable work for the investigating guests
IL is as exciting rs a chase, with the game Just
beyond the tips of your fingers, or the reach Of
your gun.
AT hrst 1t seems As il one were trying to catch
wiii-o -the-wi or find the bag of gold at the
root OF a rainbow. In fact, the effect of the
gay yarns worsteds or ribbons whichever one
chooses to use), crossed and recrossed and in
terisced and interwined. is not unlike very
beautiful rainbow. which had at the end Of each
bright strand a real prize. Not the traditional
bag OF gold, to be sure. but anything from a
siiken shoestring to diamond pin. or a book,
or picture, or anything and everything that a
ready. inventive faculty. artistic taste or fun
loving fancy can make or devise.
Cooweb parties may have juvenile sound
but they are not for the enjoyment of rollick-
ing Youngsters. but for the diversion of those
who have learned as the wears increased TO
rem In their animal spirits and 10 take their
pleasure with a certain amount of self-con-
troll.
so the hostess knows as she weaves her cob
web OF ribbons for her party that no matter
now often they are twisted and intertwisted by
ner there viii not be any fear Of them getting
into hopeless tangle.
She takes as many strands Of worsteds or warn
or ribbon as the number Of people she has in
vited. 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 q
cobweb. The ends are left within reach.
The guests are invited to select a strand and
to hnd the other end of it, which holds the prize
Each goes to work and follows the wanderings
OF his strand in the seemingly inc xtricable mass
OF bewildering twists and turns and colors
Its great fun to watch the busy prize seek
ers At first it seems deliciously SHY but the
philosopher forgets the fun of il as he marks
how each one works according to his tempera-
ment. With what zest and energy and en-
thnsiastic haste one grabs his string and follows
iis leads with eager expectancy! With what
slow, deliberate inquiry another pursues the
windings OF his strand. With what doubling
tlmldlty and misgiving another hunts for his
prize, asking numberless questions and having
to be helped by his comrades in the knotty
places
But cobweb parties are not intended for the
entertainment of philosophers but to while
away an evening in novel and pleasant way.
The most indifferent are piqued TO action by
having the thing they wish just within possible
reach. At the end each one has his prize as a
satisfying result of his labors no matter if he
found it behind clock after man, times war;
dering about the room he first entered. or
whether. after skirmishing down stairs into the
cellar. up again, down and up the hall and up
stairs to the garnet and down again to the draw
ing room to find the end of his apparently end
less strand, that led him into diverse places in
diverse ways, fastened to a gem of Q picture,
which he is privileged to take away with him to
his own domicile and tell ever after what time
he had finding it at a cobweb party.