The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-03-05

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The Lcnten season surely puts feminine
ingenuity to a sharp test in the matter
of amusements. A girl may put behind
her the world. the flesh and devil for
those forty days and do it devoutly and
willingly. Still. for all, she does not
want to die of ennui-she must do some
thing in the way of social amenities. and
so we have the mahy modified and sub
dued functions with which the p%enitentiai
season abounds.
A group of bright girls in Washington,
ID. c.. have hit upon a plan by which
they can regard the spirit of Leap Year
and at the same time give themselves
a little mental exercise so suitable for
Lent. There are t~wenty-four of these
~girls-joly. up-to-date. society gsrls-whc
call themselves 1.-The Brownies" be-
cause. perhaps, they are of the same in
quiring frame of mind.
Four of these Brownies entertain al
one time at the house of one of the four.
No gentlemen are invited. The men have
their stag parties and exclude the
women, and so the girls have taken a
special Leap Year privilege to exclude
the men. The girls all say they enjoy
themselves greatly without their adj
mirers, and think of keeping 1t up all
through the year. Their masculine
friends say, however. that their exclusion
is a penance which the girls have in
stituted for Lent and that they could
not be bribed to keep 1T up for any
length of time. But perhaps that re-
mark might be attributed to masculine
sef-complacency. which everyone knows
is enormous.
The four Brownies who are the enter
tainers of the evening prepare a list
of questions-about eighteen or twenty
Every member is presented with a list
and a pencil and is expected to answer
as many questions as she can. The
girl who answers the greatest number
gets the prize of the evening-the girl
who answers the least number gets a
BOBBY prize. The hostesses vie with
each other in arranging their programme
of questions in the most unique way.
At the last meeting the prettily writ
ten list had at its head "A penny for
your Thoughts brand new penny tied
in place by a bright ribbon. spelling that
Important word. The questions are US
uaIly as simple as can be, and often
their very simplicity makes them diff
cult to answer. The great fun of the
evening is when the answers are read
and the prizes awarded, and the girls get
OFF no end of jokes Upon each other.
Light refreshments. suitable for the sea-
son. are then served, and the girls dis
perse in season to go home and have
that hour of beauty sleep which they
can never get when the social whirl
again engulfs them.
During this Lenten season women who
usually observe the church's fast are
busy with souls intent on the various
methods of carrying 1t out in the full
Significance of the word. The wish to
make the chain of forty lays a time of
real seff-denial, from which they will
then be able to emerge strengthened and
refreshed for the regular routine of their
lives.
One woman l know detests darning
and. even refuses to wear mended hose.
Consequently she has quite a stock of
partly worn stockings stuffed away
lamong her odds and ends. Having asked
2aa her near friends to swell this num-
Der with contributions of a similar kind,
she had many dozens of pairs ready for
a unique Lenten task. She devotes W
hours of every week day during the six
weeks to darning the accumulated stock
of hosiery. At the end of the allotted
period they wia be handed over all neat
ly mended and useful articles to some
charitable Institution.
Another clever woman, with a decided
taste for millinery. has brought to light
all her old bonnets, stored away for
several years past. She also called upon
her wealthy acquaintance TO contribute
to this list of out-of-date articles. Real
izing that the love of an Easter bonnet
is Unborn in the feminine heart, and
knowing what delight her own dainty
headgear imparts upon that festal day,
she proposes to bestow the same pleas
ure upon others less blessed with re-
sources. After investing some of her al
lowance in simple straw frames, the trim
mings from her large stock of flowers
and feathers will be used to fashion
numbers of pretty Easter hats, which
she intends shall gladden. the hearts Of
as many poor girls.
A young mother OF four bright children
whose heavy social obligations allow a
very limited amount Of pleasure to be-
STOW upon her little ones. devotes herself
to them exclusively during the forty
davs OF fasting. She is in the nursery as
much as possible during the day, ATTENDS
them on their walks and sees that the
s~caf.dr>a's hour from seven to eight in
the evening. is never infrlnged upon.
This hour is always spent in entertaining
reading Or In story esliing. and she, more
over, insists that no compan shall
break in upon this arrangement. Her
happy children wish Len might continue
the year around.
Trsanon ruffs and tiny toques of en-
bro.dered velvet are seen at all the swell
afternoon entertainments where fine
clothes obtain. The gown may be as
PLATA as you please. but the ruff, or
ruche, must be of the most elaborate ar
ranger,ent. An extremely smart one Is
az full as can his. sets high about the
ears ara "a. out over the shoulders. It
Is made Of q soft. golden yellow-tinted
mousseline de Sole, in a succession OF
double box piaits. edged all about with
tiny. black thread lace.
with 1t is worn a tiny toque Of yellow
and mink mirror velvet. ali crushed fiat
"a the head in an artistic mass, the vel
vet caught high at one side in tall loops.
wifi, d lot of crushed pink roses and dull
y,,rpla violets. A most effective head
ard shoulder decoration for such wear is
) coordination of black and palest pink.