The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-05-23
SUCCESS AS A HOSTESS.

The Various Means Resorted to by
Leaders of Washington society.
TO be.a successful hostess amounts to
an art, but to achieve a reputation in
Washington amounts to positive genius
The conditions under which hospitality
is dispensed in the Capital are peculiar.
and are so essentially different from those
prevailing in any other city that the
woman who becomes a iayorite hostess
carries through her role with success and
credit to herself here is, after that eXpe-
rience, fitted TO occupy a similar position
anywhere. Many Washington hoStesses
are to the manner born and bred writes
Mrs. Senator DOlph in the New York
RecOrder. They are daughters of women
who have themselves spent years in Off
cial circles and have brought up their
daughters i'll the atmosphere OF the same
life. These women have nothing to
learn. They. have acquired polish by
mingling with the great people and re-
fined women of the land. They travel at
home and abroad, become liberal minded.
suaVe and accomplished, and learn that
the first secret OF entertaining is always
| to make guests feel that they have the
most perfect liberty to do what they
please, and that the only rules they are to
observe are those OF Wellbrcd men and
women. Some women never learn 10 be
good hostesScs because they are not able
to master the wonderful power that lies
in tact. They couldn't if all the polite
society in the five great powers endeav-
ored to instiu into their minds the first
principles OF the art.
Another class of women come to Wash
ington with only an average amount Of
social experience. They have given
small dinners at home and similar enter
tainments. They have a comfortable
bank account to draw upon and suddenly
III "a.
slightest effort and become popular hos
tesses, aven il they are not lavish in
entertaining. They have the desire to
make their houses pleasant places of
meeting for the clans of society. Their
rooms are pretty and filled with pretty
girls to assist. The hostess is always I'M
teignedly glad to see you and make the
most of each guests best qualities,
throws together people who ought to
know each other, and, while being her.
self one OF the most popular women in
the room, contrives so that no one of her
guests has chance to envy her on that
account.
other hostesses are popular because
with everything else they provide good
fare. To be good dinner-giver is TO
have mastered one of the highest forms of
entertaining, and the Washington women
are developing talent in that direction.
There is here an almost endless number
of people who are agreeable at the dinner
table. This is one of the most necessary
qualifications in guest. The successful
hostess has all these on her list of possible
people to invite. Sometimes she asks
only people who are interested in one
line, again many channels will be open
for talk. People who have visited the
same countries are seated together. a
silent man is seated by woman who is
able to sustain her own conversation.
Good inguists are an acquisition in
Washington and are always in demand.
Next 10 the guests, the menu is the
consideration of the hostess. In WASH
ington this is a matter of great import
ance, and, while at a table where an es-
pecially brilliant coterie is dining, the
conversation viii often absorb the guests
so that half OF them leave the table I'M
able TO name with surety any dish. still
the cosmopolitan character of society
brings together great many epicures and
persons of diverse tastes. To arrange a
menu to suit all these is no small task.
yet it is accomplished continually by
many women. But in dinner giving it
must be remembered that it is not So
much what is on the table as the people
who are gathered TO enjoy it. Great
wealth TO acquire the reputation of a suc-
cessful hostess is not always a necessity.
A competency in the hands of a skillful
woman viii often gain q success that
wealth can never attain. Yet with wealth
one is apt, much more SO, to succeed and
in less time.