The age-herald., 1899-06-23
Observing the At Home
Day In Summer

Day In Summer
 With the custom permanently established now in Birmingham of the lat home" day and with the determination which so many women persisted in the past winter upon having their day observed 1t has been left for the summer days in this tropical land to break down to some extent tradition in this matter. Even with this month of roses and society largely still in town the at home day is not very strictly observed. There are only fourteen women who are observ- ing the day, said woman not long ago.
 It is the result of the warm weather, of course, but 1t seemed to me for this very reason the at home day is all the more con- venient A majority of the women have "afternoons' at home, and what can be more charming than receiving ones friends on the veranda in the late summer after noon when the lawns have just been sprin- kled.
 It seems that she had conscientiously called upon a number of women on their day" only to be told that they were not at home and she was one of those rare wo- men who is disappointed when the maid solemnly takes her card and tells her Madame is out" She went on to tell me that after several futile attempts to find people in she at last had her coachman to drive her to the house of young woman who was an enthusiast on the solid comfort of having day"
 She aroused my curiosity to such an ex- tent that l expected a Imaginable account of the state of the house of the negigee ap- pearance of the hostess and everything that would shatter my ideals. but you should have heard all the sweet things she said about this woman. She found the entire house thrown together, and deliciously cool breeze floating through the apartments The awnings were partially raised and the fresh odor of sprinked lawns came through the windows. The hostess was goWned In the coolest of organdies and her pompadour framed her face becomingly. By and by the two women passed out to the Nerah- da and there the hostess presided over a table set with tall Bohemian glasses, boWls of crushed ice and cooling dishes, with as charming a grace as she did at the tea la ble of mid-winter
 It was refreshing to hear of such an adorable creature in such penetrating dayS as are these in June.
 There are other women, however, who are observing their day, since they in- tend to remain in town through the sum- mer, they prefer to have one afternoon TOT receiving. With July fast approaching, QumDerS or DSOplS WILL pG guns o"NJ to the summer places and the indications are that there will not be formal visiting to any great extent, but for the women who are not going to close their houses the summer afternoons offer the greatest possibilities for their at home day. Ihe tea table, with the fire light glancing upon it's efSective decorations and the warm glow of an apartment of winter afternoons are delightful surroundings for a woman, and she can be at her best in such environ- ment; but, after all, there is not a more charming picture than wide balcony, with it's framing of vines and opening upon a stretch of lawn. On summer afternoons entertaining on the porch can be made in every way most attractive, and the fad of furnishing the porch is by far the most popular of any fashion in vogue at present. So that for the woman in town for the summer months, her day at home can be made quite as delightful or even more 50 than those Of wintry days.
 But speaking of fat home days, the fol- lowing extracts from a London paper pre- sent the most intricate and amusing com- plications of an English day at home:
 Like the rest of the world, mamma has an afternoon when she is lat home;' or, if she has not, it can hardly be for want of trying. An lat home'' day is all very we'll if you can remember which it is. But mamma cannot. For mammals memory is her one sole, single solitary weak point She has none.
 Mamma finds it very difficult to remember the days of other people, but, upon the whole, she recollects them better than she does her own. Other peoples afternoons we keep written down in a book but It seems rather foolish to write ones own day down. Mamma did so once, and think ing 1t was quite safe in black and white, bothered her head no more about it. But before the day came the memorandum was 1oct nothing fO P1lidn us. We have tried every kind and descrip- tion of lat home' day. For some time it was the last Tuesday in the month. The last Tuesday was much too confusing for people of less than the ordinary mental call ibre, because sometimes there were only four Tuesdays In the month, and we found ourselves "at home'' a week too late, or we renounced endless pleasures and stayed fuming indoors for no possible good. to dis cover afterwards that there were five Tues days, and we were a week too soon.
 Then because there was no depending on the last Tuesday, and we never knew what it was going to do next, we changed 1t for the 18th day of every month. The peculiar ity of the 18th afternoon lay In that 1t in variably fell upon the most unsuitabse and inappropriate day of all the seven. For quite six months in this present year the 18th has fallen on Friday, and there have been seven consecutive Mondays Git does not suit the cook for us to entertain on Monday), five Thursdays one after another (Thursday is the cooks afternoon ouD, and ten Sundays (when either we or the other people go away). Then we fixed another day the third and mamma thought 1t would help us If we kept an almanac at hand to tell us when the day drew near. Several almanacs were lying about, so we consulted one, and gave up a concert that we might not appear too forgetlul put no bodv turned up. because we had unwitting- lv consulted last years almanac, and all the people came the next day, when we had gone out.