The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-07

but hard driving killed many ball on
Wednesday afternoon, and scientific plac-
ing does not shine, as far as | could deter
mine, amid the tennis talent of the West.
did not, it is true, see the more impor-
tant matches. Requisite energy to reach
the courts on the last day did
not stir in me, and it is i'm
possible to Judge any mans ability
by the farce of Thursday, when the court
was lake in miniature and it was i'm
possible to calculate distances or play in
any sort of form.
I The president was terribly stirred up
over this discomforting incident of rain,
as if he rather feared being blamed for it.
do not think that was thought of for an
instant. [ understand that he exclaimed
WAITS" once with great violence, but do
not think loud enough to have caused rain.
should be inclined to favor the idea that it
was due to other explosions of more
American nature, incident to the date.
Apropos of the Fourth. one forgot it in
San Rafael. No one had the indelicacy to
allude to it, and the painful thought of our
Independence was buried beneath a stony
British impassibility which fits our men
as well as papa's pants fitted Willie. A
little boy nearly caused heart failure by
running down the porch waving the stars
and stripes; but man of great tact and
presence of mind began whistling "Rule
Britannia" and the crisis was passed
safely, although every one was nervous for
hours afterward.
1t is not true, however, that San Rafael
is more English than London. l no
of oIo
which, consciously or unconsciously, are
not English at all. Accents are unmistak-.
able. Some of the men cannot understand
one another, and they are forced to go out
on the porch and explain themselves as
opportunity offers in the United States
tongue. But all such minor difficulties
may be smoothed out by the times Wales
comes over and in the interim the place,
as heaven will bear witness, is quite Eng
lish enough. Of course all the watches
and clocks are run on London time, and
until one masters this little detail life seems
filled with complications.
For example, was covered with scarlet
shame to find myself eating terrapin and
drinking Mumm at half after seven in the
evening by my own timepiece, set in San
Francisco, California, America, only two
hours before, whereas people all about me
in San Rafael were ordering grilled bones
for breakfast and talking Court gossip over
their tea.
Possibly this difference of time &C
counted for the early close of the ball. 1t
was closed, in fact it was slammed down,
with the utmost abruptness as soon as the
dancers left the ballroom to go out to
supper. 1t seemed to me very small and
early affair, but l presume it was day
light in London.
1 rather looked for full dress affair on
this occasion, one of the initiated having
explained to me that the Hotel Rafael
ball was the swagger out-of-town function
in California. l saw no gowns which made
me blink, and most of the women were
CARRIED in dinner frocks, and by no means
extreme dinner frocks at that. A rage for
Simple little white muslins," than which
there is nothing more trying after the days
of infancy, seemed to have afflicted half
the girls at the hotel Needless to explain
that they were, with one exception, hope
lessly unbecoming, and their lifelessness
further enhanced by an exhibition of raw
red elbows, which the short puffed sleeves
revealed in all the brutality of nakedness
The exception might have been debu-
tante or a jeune mariee. Commas pas
She was extremely lovely, with a skin of
cream, and dark hair closely coiled to
small, fine head. She was fair and young
enough to be girl, but had something of
the dignifed repose which the married
state is supposed to confer, and she id
not dance. She looked like cameo in her
white muslin, but hers is the beauty that
illumines, and she would have gloriied a
gunny sack. Passing the dancers over in
that swift uncertain mental review, which
is so apt to drop one or two and never miss
them, l believe there were, after this
stately one, but three beauties at
the. ball. One, the married daugh-
ter OF Southern house, who still
has the apple blossom tint of early girl
hood, velvet fascination of the eye and
not an atom of an idea how to dress. The
other, the tall, distinguished grand
daughter of dead Bishop, and the third
Greek nymph of a girl who wore the
daintiest frock in the room, matter of
blue shimmery stuff and Dresden ribbon |
blurred with soft roses who took herself |
and her delicious gown off and away at an |
early hour, and who is easily the hand |
soonest girl in California.
The beauty of the Californian woman has
long been open to fierce disputes. Men
and women, too, have fought, bled and
died for the native female loneliness.
through columns of newspapers which are