The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-04
THE WEEK IN SOCIETY
BIZ OF GOSSIP ENTIRELY WITH 4
LOCAL PERTINENCE..
Young women Attending De-
The Growing Rage for Palms.

day said a woman. land L fell to think
ing of what a reputation indianapolis has
for pretty women. There are just scores
Of them. from the budding debutantes to
the mothers of families. In the windings
of my thoughts, up this street and down
that. [ wondered if there were any real
ugly ones. / thought of the plainest wom-
en- ! knew. One had beautiful eyes. al
though she had no other good feature.
Then l thought of some one else, and she
had beautiful hair-I had often looked at
it; another had a mouth that was most in
viting to kiss, and another had such a
happy smile that / felt she was not ugly.
Another enc was plain almost to ugliness
until she laughed and showed her perfect
teeth. Finally j settled on one that 1 could
not see anything pretty about, and / de-
cided that she, of all the women / know,
could be said to be positively homcly. /
had quite decided it III my mind, and l
thought of her as / had seen her so many
times. While l was deep in my thinking
a friend called, and while we were talking
/ told her of what / had been doing. She
agreed with me about the plainest one at
first, but in about two minutes she said:
Did you never look at her hands and feet?'
l told her ! had not, and this friend said
that she had a most perfect hand and foot,
and that a famous sculptor had asked per-
mission to take a cast of her hand as the
most perfect shaped he had ever seen, and
then / came to the conclusion that no one
is absolutely ugly. but all have their re-
deeming qualities"
The rage for palms is growing. A few
years ago i was a rarity to see palms any
where except in a conservatory or used for
decorations for large events. Now these
products of the tropics have come into such
favor that a drawing room or parlor is not
complete without one or more, and they
are considered a pretty adjunct in shops.
When the fad for china began to grow
one of the articles manufactured was the
jardiniere. 1T was not possible to keep a
blOomin plant through a season in these.
and so the palm was introduced by some
wise person. To-day the parlor without a
palm is the exception. For an entertain
ment at a public place or in a home the
palm plays the important part in the dec
o%rations. The wedding without. d palm as
a factor in the event is seldom heard of.
and, in fact, for all sorts of things and all
kinds of people the palm has become a
necessity. They are in such great variety
that they may be used as a center piece
for the daily dinner table or they may be
used as Il great pyramidal decoration at
Tomlinson Hall. Palms and cut flowers
are the regulation decoration for gather
ings and single palms for parIors.
"a tdISe NUMBER OF young women VINO
are out of school have taken n fancy to at
tend the Training School Cooking School,
and they are enthusiastic in what they are
doing. Now that Mrs. Ewing has given up
the idea Of opening a cooking school in
the Propylaeum this year, the Training
School is securing a share of the would-be
cooks. The have attacked the work with
an earnestness which insures success.
They are careful readers of every recipe
that is printpd and after thpy have bean
taught how to make a certain kind of food
at the school they try it at home until
they can do it perfectly. Some of the
young ladies think that eating up what has
been cooked is the charm that holds them,
but as a rule the ones who are taking the
course are following it with the idea of
making is useful.
Standing in d group of young women at
a tea one day recently the weddings that
are taking place or are about to were dis
cussed. Finally one member of the party
spoke up and said: DO you know that /
think being single is becoming a fad. Mrs.
E.. who is a ndmot told me the
other day that it took a mighty smart girl
to keep out of m~atrimony, and l am be-
ginning to think that perhaps there is some
bit of truth in what she said. My aunt is
making a collection of sketches of the
bright unmarried women of the world. and
she has a scrapbook pretty well filled. She
is single herself. and it may be she has
more interest in the matter than some
other might have, but for my part l know
lots of women. young and old, who are
not married, and I believe they are more
respected than lots of women who are My
told me that in her day it
was considered a disgrace for q girl not to
be married by the time she was twenty
four, and if she was single at thirty she
was an old maid and never would be mar
ried. There are not many of the old-naidy
kind of old maids now"
A girl who spent part of the summer in
the country was telling some friends of a
dinner she went to at the house of some of
her relatives and of the long table that was
set, with everything on it. when one of the
listeners said she thought she would like
to have a return of the old-fashioned way
for the dinner parties, so that one could
gauge the appetite and know what there
was to be eaten" Going to q course din
ner, one never knows how much or how lit
tie is to be served. 1t may be a three
course dinner or one of four. or again it
may be seven or eight. The long dinners
are not considered good form, but there are
ever so many people who think they have
not extended the proper hospitality unless
they have a long list of edibles. 1t is the
way in the country, or what is known as
the old-fashioned way, to have a great
quantity. One person tells OIL q woman VINO
never considered her dinner table complete
unless she had a dozen kinds of preserves,
jellles and pickles forming a grand row
of dishes down the center of the table.
With everything in sight, the man who likes
roast beef or fried chicken can eat of that
and save some of his appetite for pie. or can
eat less of soup and fish and take more
salad, or the small boy can take but little
meat and much pudding. The dinner party
where the guests do their own reaching
is not just in style for the fashionables, but
there are antilles and friends who like
the informality and the fun to be had at
an old-fashioned dinner.
Mrs. l.. F. De Golyer and daughter. Mrs.
j.. Hugh Daugherty, have returned from a
trip to Michigan and Canada. Mrs. Daugh-
erty will continue her at home days on
Wednesdays during the season.