The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-01-09
NEW YEARS IN NEW YORK



EVERY one then kept open house or
the 1st of January-the ladies' received
ana the men made calls. The dav wa,
Kept even in the tenement houses anf
among the respectable poor, for in those
Gays New York was a very differen,
place from the New York of to-day. The
poor were nearly all Englsh-speakina
| people, and Sums except the Five
POINTS, were not to be found. No wo.
man of position ever left the house or
New Years day except in the cases of
urgent necessity or to go early in the
day to receive with friend The young
and pretty girls were always in great
demand then, as they offered an attrac.
ton in the homes where the daughters
were not grown up, or where there were
no daughters and the hostess was her
self no longer young. The young peo-
pie enjoyed the day hugely, there is no
doubt of that, but for the elders it was
not always an unmixed blessing. The
young men boosted of the number of
calls they had made and the girls OF the
number received. The housekeepers,
who prided themselves on Their table"
We'd with one another on this occasion,
and brought out wonderful old recipes
| never used at any other season, but
kept sacred for the festival day.
The staid fathers of families were
started out in the early part of the day
with a long list of calls all written out
for them. The elders often started with
groans of despair, but as often came
back saying, well, 1t was pleasant to
see Mrs. So and So AGAIN.: or How
that pretty daughter of the BIS has
grown up; really, it isn't such a bad
day after ALL" They did take it bit
hard when they came in at night tired
and hungry to be met in the hall and
told, mo, don't take your coat off yet,
father; Mr.. A was here or Mr.
B; you must go and call on those
ladies before you stop. didn't put their
names on your list" and then, in an
swer to remonstrance or begging off,
why, you won't be so rude, will you,
when they called here?" And off the
martyr would go. The knowing ones
knew just where to steer for lunch, and
year after year were expected at GER
tain houses at lunch time. Resisted so
many invitationss my dear Mrs. S."
I remember hearing one gentleman say,
"for know. what your squash pies are
and what a cup of coffee you make"
In our own family, for days before,
our mother went anxiously over the
long list Of calls to be handed to father
on New Years morning, and he usually
received it with great remonstrance.
The only son, old enough to make calls,
made his own list with much biting of
lead-pencils and many erasures and
corrections.
For long time before the eventful
day there was a mixing of rich black
fruit cake, and for day or two before
the making Of wine jelly, on a most de-
lightful charcoal furnace in the front
basement, over which our grandmother
presided. How plainly can see now the
long, narrow sheets of gelatine, with
crisis crosses stamped or moulded Coop
ers best" it was-and we felt a per-
sonal interest in Peter Cooper's upon
them in diamond-shape. Peter best
for didn't we know Peter Cooper. He
sat near us in chruch and always had
pleasant word for us-and often Jog
ged through our own street-Tenth
street--on his way home towards
Fourth avenue. Then we took an even
deeper interest in the jelly for we often
had at the hands of our indulgent
grandmother a couple of little tumbler-
fuls for our own selves. Such jelly. it
was always a wonder to us how it ever
came out so clear with all the stuff that
was put into it. Whites of eggs went in,
and the shells, rings of the rind of the
lemons cut so thin as to be almost
sugar and wine--lots of
both-and such careful stirring, and
then the lifting off, at just the right
second by the waiting cook or wait
ress. 1t was carefully poured into big
funnel bag, the mouth held open by
eager little hands, and then left to drip
into big yellow bowl. later to be pour
ed into the moulds. No moulds stood
alone in those days, but were carefully
anchored in sand, brought up from the
shore of our summer home. The bag
was suspended from a crowbar laid
across the seats of two substantial
chairs, and the chairs were steadied by
piles of books, and any heavy thing
that happened to be handy There were
no patent drainers or strainers, no