The Indianapolis journal., 1893-12-10
Invitations.

A formal invitation is generally so word
ed that there is no n1istaking its import
A wedding card is so very clear that every
pne who receives one knows who sends it,
who the bride Is TO be, who the groom is
to be. where it will take place and when
and all the particulars When an invita-
ton for an evening party comes it is about
as clear the former, and the feature of
the entertainment Is announced in the low
er left hand corner. The time is also given,
but ii is the entertainment to occur before
6 o'clock that puts the recipient into
fever and makes her nervous. Especially
IS this true Of the social function called a
tea" A week or two before the event is
TO take place visiting cards usually it is
almost an unheard-of thing to receive a
regularly engraved invitation TO a teal are
sent out and hour is named. 1t may be
3 O'Clock or 1t may be O'Clock, or posi-
bly, o'clock. and the one who receives IL
wonders If she is to go at the hour desig-
mated or If she has the privilege of going
at any hour from the named till
o'clock. In nearly every instance this lat
ter is what she may do, but she is not safe
In doing 1t every time. There have been
numerous cases where the hostess has sent
out cards like this and intended that her
guests should be on hand at the hour and
ready to sit down to table or to small
tables and be served to a luncheon of three
or more courses. Anyone going later de
lays the feast. Then il has happened that
a person going promptly at the hour named
expecting that 1t might be a "sit-down
tea" has been ushered into a drawing
room and had to wait for her hostess to
appear, and feel that she had come too
- -tf NhnV.z
and talk to her hostess for a half hour and
wait for someone else to put in an appear
ance This would not be anything but a
pleasure under ordinary circumstances, but
she feels that she is the only stupid one
of all who are asked, and she wonders how
they all found 1t out and she did not and
then, perhaps, she finds very little dis
trust growing, that the hostess has asked
her because she was indebted to her for
a company. and in all this wonderment she
IS really unhappy till some one rings the
bell and very soon others come in and she
is one Of many, and she thinks she was
fool for feeling as she did Then, perhaps,
she was invited in the same way very soon
after, and she says to herself that she will
not be caught that way a second time, and
she never leaves home till 4:30, and when
she arrives she finds that all are seated
at tea" (where there is no teal, and the
hostess arises from her seat and bids her
welcome, and she is served TO the second
course and misses the first entirely, and
again she hates herself for being 50 stupid.
This does not, OF course, happen to the same
girl every time, and she very often goes
when the rest do and does the proper thing,
but once in while she misses IL and Is
made unhappy, and all by the fault Of the
entertainer. A good rule for afternoon In
vitations would be that when guest Is
expected at a certain hour that only one
hour be named, but If the guest may come
at any time during the three or four hours
that two hours be named, thus, from 4
to s O'Clock, when a hostess has a course
tea ready at o'clock she naturally wants
all of her guests to be ready very close TO
that time or some of the daintieS will be
ruined by waiting, so that form for an
invitation would be OF material benefit in
almost every instance.