The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-16
SOCIETY DULL
1T HAS NOT RECOVERED FROM THE
LETHARGY or LENTEN TIME.
Bright Gowns TO he Ont for the May
Music Festival-A New
Lawn Game.

-@-
Notes in society news from all parts of
the country are to effect that the spring
season has been unusually dull. Very few
marriages have occurred and pre-lenten
gaiety ceased at Ash Wednesday and has
not been resumed. Usually there is a flut-
ter of society wings after Easter, but this
year they were folded and have remained
so. At the Atlantic coast cities there are
preparations for visits to Europe and the
resorts, but inland people are awaiting the
arrival of a hot day and the temptation
to get away from the heat and the dust.
While they are waiting it is not to be sup
posed that they are in idIeness, for the
house and the wordrobe have had TO have
semi-annual attention. There is a promise
of scores of weddings for June but that
does not relieve the present dearth of en-
t~ertainment. For the last three days of
the coming week the May festival will fur
nlsh all that is necessary in the way of
going, and showing the new spring gowns.
Now that the hat ordinance is in effect
there will be a chance for the singers to
be seen as well as heard by the audience
on the main floor.
One of the leading shops has just brought
out a novelty for wedding gifts. This is
the Dutch silver. 1t is a reproduction in
sterling silver of articles for the table and
cabinet in the old Holland designs. The
sugar shovels are quaint and the spoons
look ancient, as if of long lineage and of
nigh degree. The famous ships, cathedrals
ana places, the dykes and the bitches all
ngur largely in the response decoration.
one spoon is so fiat that its ends are al
most reversible for handle and scoop. The
picturesque boats, even, to the quality of
the canvas in the sails, form a larger part
or the designs. A canal boat at one end
= 1.-Two nfn hoe "a hn-na -a~1 % $500
at the other end, and another odd piece for
a cabinet IS a boat mounted in such a way
that the least motion makes it rock as
II 1t We're ploughing the deep. The articles
are all odd, no two alike, and a single
piece is sufficient for a cabinet, while the
table pieces are as unique as one could
wish Tor use or establishment.
A lady. who owns considerable real estate
and several houses which she rents, has
been spending a month or more in painting,
p~apering and doing scores of other things
which are always required by a tenant of
an amiable landlord. She went through the
houses that were vacant to see what was
needed and took notes of broken panes,
plastering, loose boards and the like. In
one of the houses, setting in the kitchen
was an old washing machine. When this
caught her eye she was delighted 1t was
Just what she had beef- looking for through
secondhand shops for ages. She had
HdAACu one - uGE YARD. 10 nave painted
the color or the house and plant vines in.
Size made up her mind that the man could
put 1T in the phaeton and take it home and
she would go home in the car. Papering
and painting might wait until another day.
She went home and fortunately or unfor-
tunately there was a friend who had
dropped in for luncheon. Before the friend
left another called and visitors kept coming
all the afternoon, and she had no time to
investigate her new treasure. Early the
next morning she went to market and re-
memberlng her neglected work of the day
before, went to the house where she found
the much-prized washing machine. There
on the porch stood the next door neighbor
weeping piteously, hnr blue and white
checked apron soaked with the tears that
had fallen. The lady demanded the cause
OF her woe. 20, my dear miss, som wan
hez cum and tux me old washin' machine
that me old mither was afther bringing
over from the auld countree." The lady
had to confess that she had carried off the
trophy and it was sadly returned the same
day.
Lawn upolette is a game for early spring
days, before tennis has begun to be played.
1t is played with wooden quoits and large
wooden pins, fashioned with a slight cup at
the top, in which rests a bali.
There are seven pins driven into the
ground; six are set up in a circle, with the
seventh in the middle. The players, dt-
vided in two teams, and any number may
play, stand at a given distance from the
pins, each player is supplied with quoits,
with which she tries to knock the balls
out OF the cups. Each PIN is numbered
from one to seven, and before tossing the
QUOT, the player must give the number of
the pin at which she intends to aim, and
if she strikes off the ball. she scores one;
If she knocks off the ball belonging to any
other pin, the score counts one for the OPP
posing team. If, however, she strikes off,
not only the ball at which she aimed, but
by the same throw strikes off one or more
balls besides, she may score them all.
A variation of the game is to try to
throw the quoits SO as to fail upon the
pins, after the balls have been knocked
eff, and for every case in which she sue
ceeds she adds the number of the pin to
her score.