The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-14
A NEW INVENTION FOR AMUSING
YOURSELF AND YOUR FRIENDS.

Send i'm the First Picture of Your
seIf-HOstess Arrnnges the EN-
tries" Around the Wall and the
Guests Do the Guessing-Prixes
ing the Pictures.
New York, March 12-Have you ever
been to a baby show? If not, you are
destined soon to experience something nov
el in the line of amusement, for there is
baby show invitation Gin the candle"
for you. Doubtless at this very moment
the clerk in the postoffice is sorting out
a little envelop marked with your name.
When you get the invitation it will
read that you are invited to attend
baby show at such time and place. At
the close there will be a request that you
send in advance the earliest picture TAX
en- of yourself.
The baby show as it is now amusing
the delicate senses of those who are al
ways looking for something new, is por-
trait exhibition. The hostess sets aside
room for the show. She clears it of fur
niture, strips the walls of their hangings,
sends out her invitations and waits for
the entries.
Soon they begin to come ina vast ar
ray of youthful pictures. There is the
oil painting of RaphaePs "Cherub," with
sadly unclassic nose! This is a picture
of your friend Senator Bisby, done at the
age of 2, when his mother saw signs of
angel wings cropping from his shoulders
and must have her cherub painted.
There is the pantaletted child seated by
the boy with odd-looking trousers. These,
by looking up the cards, you learn to be
Congressman So-and-So and brother, TAX
en- when they were small boys. And
there is the daguerreotype, with it's queer
glass effect, and the faded little card, both
taken before photography was clear and
instantaneous.
These pictures make the baby show. You
hang them on the walls with a backing
of cardinal cloth to 'set them Off" Then
you ask the company to judge them. No
names are attached, merely numbers,
quite like any portrait show.
The interesting part comes in the guess
ing. Each guest is presented with a
small card, on which she wrhes her i'm
pressions of the pictures. OppositeNthe
proper numbers she places the name Of
the person whose picture she thinks it
is, and when her list is complete she
hands it in to the committee.
There is a judge and a committee Of
examination. The latter looks over the
cards and gives a mark to each correct
guess. The finals are handed to the
judge, who awards prizes to the best
guessers. The consolation prize to the
one who got the fewest right, Isl large
tintype, for which the unfucky guesser
sits next day. The tintype becomes
the property of the hostess, and at a fu-
ture baby show it is a feature. The win
ming prize is a large instantaneous photo
graph of the room, taken by flash light
that same evening and promised as the
property of the winner, when completed.
To give the baby show the progressive
feature new shows are given. New friends
are introduced and shows planned for
them. Six pictures make a show, and are
enough to form an excuse for another
bay show and so it may go on all winter
A leader in Chicago society, whose moth
er was requested to send the earliest pho
tograph of her son, and who supposed 1t
was for some private use, enclosed lit
tie card of her boy at the age of three
weeks, in a wash-bowl. The Mortified
leader of society nearly fell to the floor
when he recognized his first picture in
view for 300 of Chicago's ultras
The supper is a feature of the Baby
Show. The most youthful things are
served. Cornstarch buildings in infantile
mould Ices as Noah'S ark figures, and
doughnut men and women fried in fat.
A tin plate with alphabet around the edge,
set upon a wooden tray, is placed before
each guest; and lemonade and coffee are
served in mugs AS a favor" each guest
takes home an orange, which may be a
bon-bon box with removable cover.
The baby show sounds very simple
when described and seems a most harmo-
NOUS way of spending a novel evening.
But in the mock baby show, as well as
in the real thing, there may be notes out
of harmony. A serious disturbance was
caused at one, when the company unani-
mously voted a great fat-faced bouncing
baby TO be a young Yale athlete. When
the decision was read, a deep silence fell
upon the group, broken suddenly by the
violent sobbing OF a sweet-faced, petite
blonde. THAT isn't an athlete" cried
She ut Is picture of me, taken when /
was a year old. Oh-oh-I think you and
the baby show are nasty, mean thingsw
But If all agree TO accept the decisions
with equanimity, the baby show can be
made an event at which there Is a great
deal more of laughter than tears
Frank Harris.