The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-22
Fashion Demands
Much Of Her
IN ENTERTAINING.
Not a Cheap Luxury What
1t Costs.

Do the rich or the poor spend the
most in entertaining? Not proportion
ately, but absolutely. OF course, in
this is not included either the extreme
ly rich or the extremely poor, but those
people who consider themselves poor by
comparison with their friends, and
those who are considered rich by COM
parison with the people who have not
an assured income. Entertaining is a
serious business in New York in the
present state of society, so serious a
business that there is great danger of
it's soon becoming absolutely old fash
toned, with the exception of tremen-
dous affairs-what the society papers
call functions.
An interesting discussion was held
the other day on the subject of for
how much it was possible to give a din
ner. OF course, the discussion was
held among women. The richest wom-
an at the TABLETOP all this took place
at a dinner-said she could entertain
six or eight guests at dinner each week
one night a week, that Island that
her bills each week would not be over
$40 or $50 more than usual. Another
woman said it would cost her at least
500 to entertain that number of people
once q week, while the third woman
brought down the house, so to speak,
by announcing firmly that it cost her
$3.50.
Then what the menu should be was
brought up, and the end of it was the
formation of a dinner club which is
extremely smart and exclusive, where
the price of the dinner is limited to
500, including wines. So far only one
dinner has been given and that is a
success, but there are rumors that the
hostess has exceeded the allowance
and basely provided several things
from her own private purse, and that
the decorations for the table were all
sent by some sympathetic admirer.
The woman who lives in a formal
way all the time, keeps at least two
men servants, a chef and a kitchen
maid, does not have to provide so
people to dine with her, for in so large
household there is always lavish
provision made, consequently there is
really not such a lot more to order. In
such a house, for instance, oysters,
fish, one entree, roast, salad and
game, dessert, cheese, coffee and Ii
queurs are an everyday provision.
When guests are invited, the only diff
ference made is in having another en-
tree, or, perhaps, some different, some
rarer species of game. The chef is al
ways so good that there is no neces-
sity for bringing in an outside cook
and two well-trained men servants are
all that are needed to wait upon eight
or ten people, -' 5'-i 81
In the smaller households, where
there is good plain cook and one
smart waitress having eight people ex-
ira to dinner, involves engaging a
Swedish cook (there are two or three
of these women who are busy every
day in the year, at $40 an evening,
bringing in a man servant or maid
servant and then providing a much
more elaborate menu. In such house
hold as described, champagne is not
the daily drink, nor are the wines of
| the most expensive quality, so 1t can
readily be seen that $100 or 5000 can
easily be disposed of, for it would never
do to ask Mrs. So-and-So to dine at
your house and offer her a dinner in
! any respect inferior to the one that
you would have at Mrs Vanderbilt s
she simply wouldn't come again if
you did, and as Mrs. So-and-So is a
charming woman, whose acquaintance
is most desirable it is worth while
making an effort However there are
so many Mrs. So-and-So's to invite,
that by the end of the season the bill
for dinners is likely to be somewhat
appalling
A good waitress receives now any
where from 500 to $35 a month-the less
work she does the higher her wages.
A butler has from $40 to $50 a month,
and the higher wages he receives the
more assistance he requires. There must
i be second man, of course, then third
man in the pantry, with a woman to
wash the dishes; but on the other hand
to engage extra service is an expensive
matter, says the New York Press.
Besides those men servants who go
out in this way are in such demand that
their faces become well known, and il
does rather detract from the sweetness
of a dinner to be waited on by the same
man servant who has served you at no
less than three dinners the same week
These little trifles, however, are not al
lowed to interfere with the joy of en-
PERTAINING.
The expense of china is serious one
for people who do not entertain often
They invariably have to replenish their
stock of both china and glass, whereas
the rich woman has always her pantry
well stocked and does not have to ever
down from the greenhouse in the coun-
try cost nothing, but the expense OF
flowers when they have to be bought
at the florists is no small item in the
total cost of a dinner. The wine cellar
question has already been touched upor
but 1t is one that interferes seriously
with poor people entertaining theil
friends, for nowadays nobody drink:
anything but champagne. 1t would b(
considered no compliment to offer YOU
friends sherry and claret.
The dinner club is expected to work
wonders in the matter of turning out
satisfactory entertainments for little
money and there is no question that il
can be done.
In the meantime, it is said, Miss Anna
Sands, Mrs. Mills and her friends have
started this winer by an ostentatious
simplicity in entertaining and after the
play give chafing-dsh suppers at their
own houses, where the cooking is al
done at the table. If this plan does sue
| coed there will come a revolution in.
deed, and in consequence much more
social life, for there is no question that
a lot of nice people have dropped out
1 of society, finding it absolutely impos-
sible to keep up with safety as it ex-
poets to be entertained today. It's well
enough to talk about being ndepend-
ent and entertaining in an independent
way The woman who is independent in
her entertaining simply cannot get the
| people she wants for her guests, no
/ matter how bright and clever she may
be. She had best put her jewels in pawn
and engage a chef and spend what is
! left after she has paid the wages Of the
chef. on food for the chef to cook. She
will get along faster in that way than
in any other, and the young girls of the
present day viii dc well to study math-
ematics as applied to dinner giving in
New York This is being done, it As said,