The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1893-01-20
BRINGING OUT A BUD.
COST OF HER OUTFIT, WITH ITS
DRESSES AND ORNAMENTS.

|
of Meeting ''Society''-she Has to Have
Almost InnumerabIe Gowns.
Some years ago wrote about the man
ner in which Fifth avenue family of my
acquaintance kept its oldest daughter what
| you might cali satin lined and cotton bat
! tinged with luxury like a bit of exceed
ingly delicate jewelry in its case Now
want to tell little, just the veriest trifle
that | have happened to hear about the
manner in which that young lady's sister
is being got ready for what is called her
debut in society. AS l remember the
story of the surroundings of her sister,
whose marriage made a great stir about
two years ago and who is now wrapped up
in little baby of her own, there was moth
ing more extraordinary than that she lived
in great comfort and had nearly everything
! that she wantcd-a French maid, | remem-
Der, and great closets full of dresses and
bureaus full of linen, and very pretty
! bedroom which, by an odd chance, hap
| pened to be called into for Il moment when
| she was away.
| The most striking things in that room, lis
| remember it, We're the great cheval glass
in which she viewed the effects of her dr;l-
peres and the set" of her skirts, and
pretty rosewood ''priedieu," with an ivory
and silver covered prayer book on its shelf
on which she knelt to say her probably
commonplace prayers every night and
morning 1t strikes me now, though did
not think of it then, that perhaps not so
many persons would slight their prayers if
they had Il pretty rosewood contrlption,
with il cushioned shelf for their knees, star
Ing them in the face and getting in the way
of their feet every time they dressed and
oil n,,I ficrnbaI 7 Of
course.
But now she considers herself an old mar,
ried woman, and may even have French
novels to read and to hide when the younger
one visits her. And she and her mother are
just now very busy i'll preparing to usher
the younger girl into the giddy whirl of so
ciety, i'll which all the older ones spend their
ornamental lives | had never thought of
it before, and | wonder how many of my
readers have ever considered what it means
to bring out" such girl. Of course |
knew that some one gave Il party-h mother
or aunt or sister-and that the bud" or
debutante had to be well dressed for the oc-
casion, but gracious sakes! rs any fashio...
able woman would say who reads this, the
dress for that one night is nothing at all
Well, not exactly nothing mt all either, for
| have heard that it cost more than $500.
and the ten dollar handkerchief that she
will wear that night is now having seven
dollars worth of lace sewed on it.
The Shoes the silk stockings, the orna-
ments for her hair, the stickpins for her
corsage and the exquisite linen which will
intervene between her dress and her person
are all of the finest, and cost lump sum of
hundreds of dollars. SO it does cost some
thing, after all-that and the order 1T Sher
rvs for IL supper for sixty, and at the florists
for literal banks of flowers. And ler little
cousin, who lives with her and is to be
present at the installation of the belle, is to
he dressed, it seems. within what | would
call an inch of her life.
But that coming out night figures very
lightly in the cost of the occasion. This !
young lady has been in the hands of sew.
eral dressmakers for more than a month. |
and has nearly two dozen new dresses UNI
der way. When heard that | remarked
that had not remem bered that she was in
short dresses and needed Il new set. was !
laughed at for that. Bless YOU" said her
father, who was my informant, she wears |
dresses rs long as her mothers and has |
done so for long time" What she is
having now, it seems. are dresses of kind |
she never needed before-tireSSes for public !
and social functions, from which she used |
to be barred when she was merely girl. |
Among these new gowns are theater |
dresses, opera dresses and cloaks, tea |
gowns dinner dresses and dancing and lie |
ception dresses.
As Il rule she has to have a bonnet to |
match every dress and shoes and stockings |
that accord with the evening dresses. A |
half dozen new wraps, some OF them |
from Paris, like one or two of the dresses, |
are in the list that this irreverent father |
ratified off to me when he found that | was |
interested. And even these are but the big |
ger things.
The number of fans, and the abundance |
of gloves. and the cost and delicacy of two
score of the handkerchefs and the hairpins |
and pocketbooks and purses, the slippers |
and the umbrellas that he mentioned |
seemed to me beyond all reason and beyond
the calculation of IL man of modest figures
The father did not pretend to know much
about the matter, and said he guessed he
had not told me of some of the important |
things. We'll, said l. lit sounds to me as
if you had adopted n Hottentot girl with a
palm leaf for II trousseau and were trying to
dress her for n season at Newport" And
that is how IL does seem.
This young woman is also to enjoy the
dignity of u NADIA real French one, who
WAS engaged in Paris by New York lady
of her acquaintance, who thus would have
caused two continents to feel interested in
the great event had not the purchase of
dresses in Paris disturbed that side of the
globe beforehand. She is also to have
carriage and horses that she is to call her
own and order sent around whenever she
wants them, instead of asking her mamma
for the loan of that lady's equipage once in
awhile Mt the most inopportune times, as
am informed she has been doing of late.
1t is all very strange to me, but l must
say it seems equally natural to my rich
friends Poor Richard gave the advice,
Associate with the wealthy, for q man is
often mistaken for the company he keeps"
or words of that import. | do not either
follow or like his advice. l have rich
friends and some that | like and admire
very much, but not all such are comforta-
BILE company for a poor man. Not that the
sensation of every man enters into the mat
ter, for it does not with me, but the only
sense of inequality that some of us cannot
overcome or forget is that which comes with
the presence of great wealth, especially
when it is Inherited and carries no compre-
hension of the status and limitations of
those who have it not.-Julian Ralph in
Providence Journal.
The Palmetto of the South.