River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-04-16
SOCIAL ASSEMBLIES.
Early Gatherings of the Elite of Old-Tlm
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 eneroachment
upon their simple mode of living, these
/ foreign fads and fancies. the attendant
eXtravagancies in dress, the fiirtations,
and TO them dreadful designations 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. Ii
must be remembered, however, that
/ forty shillings represented an imposing
sum of money in the pre-revolutionary
days. The menu consisted of picked
oysters and bread and butter" What
they drank is not so clearly stated, but
il can be safely put forward that this
| part of the bill of fare was well cared
/ for. When we contrast picked oys-
] tiers and and-butter'' with Sherry S
menu of bouillon en- tasse, huitres
Bechamel aux truffes, terrapin, aspic
/ de foie gras, gelee aux fruits. cham
/ payne, etc, one wonders at the mar
I NtAtOuN anu III
/ the short space of one hundred and fifty
years in the appetites and digestions of
| the elite of our American social world.
| : Blank cards did not exist, and all in
vitations were printed or written ON
/ the backs of playing-cards. Thus Mrs.
/ Willing, or Miss Hopl1inson, or, let us
say. Tilghman, received her invita-
ton 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. 1888" This Mrs
Jeykell 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 an
common sight to see ladies going to the
assembly on horseback in all their
/ feathers and furbelows. What a sight
/ il 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 Worth's 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 INDUCED in a
rubber of whist while the dancing was
| going on; ''wall-howers'' existed
even at that remote period, and the
music was usually furnished by colored
| fiddlers. Even as far back as the mid
die of the last century there were rival
''cliques" CT ''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 trivialities passed
momentarily out of existence. The
same gallants who. with their satin
coats and ruffies, their dress-hangers
and powdered perukes, 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 a stone's-throw of
where the city assembly used TO meet
in Joyous company the Declaration of
Independence was read, the liberty bell
pealed forth its tocsin of defiance to old
England, ald later still the first con-
gress of the United States met in solemn
conclave.
The city assembly was revived in 1900,
with a 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 magniti-
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 Harper
Bazaar.