The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-01-13
GOSSIP FROM GOTHAM

Butterfly culture Is the pretty con-
ceit that claims the interest of several
society women in most of their spare
moments. Clever Mrs. Seth Barton
French and the always ingenious An
gelica Gerry are among the enthusiasts,
and one almost as ardent is the eternal
ly charming Anna Sands. 1t is a pur-
suit which, with the wealthy, is indie
pendent of seasons-xso far, at any rate,
as weather conditions CO. Mrs. French
has promising colony of caterpillars
in her greenhouse and the Misses Gerry
and Sands are watching the Develop
ment of similar settlements in the bay
windows of their boudoirs At this
season the caterpiliars. of course, must
have dollhouse treatment. They have
TO be deluded into a belief that it is
the balmy time of year and that they
are due for progress through the sew
eral stages incident to their frivolous
careers Mrs. French and the girls
have little scientific interest in their
new fancy. They look only at the
esthetic side. the idea being that it will
be highly original and delightfully."- ex-
elusive to have ones own butterflies
fitting from flower to flower in ones
conservatory. Credit can be claimed
only by the social butterfly who raises
the other kind herself, so each culturist
scorns to accept the assistance of any
Dody. 1T gives one creepy feeling to
see pretty women handling the crawl
ing fuzzy-wuzzies, but prophetic
glance at the coming beauty of the
painted insect-or is it a bird CON
soles the onlooker for the tiny shock.
Akin to that method of relaxation
from the daily round of pleasure but
more practical, is the delight Miss Mary
Dxr1<a Oh, ss,;,,
of sill1wor1ns The culture amounts al
most to a passion with her She ac-
quired a fondness for the funny little
things when she wore short skirts and
ate her bread and butter in the nursery
A child's magazine gave glowing ac-
count of the pleasure to be- derived
from watching the worms spin silk
and the article fell under little Marys
eye. Her magination was fired by the
poetic description of the process. and
in fancy she saw herself supplying the
looms of the world. No rest was given
to other members of the family until
the yOungSter was provided with eggs
galore, mulberry leaves in abunda nee
and rows of glass boxes in which to
keep her wriggling pets. She soon
spoke learnedly of cocoons and all that
sort of thing and amused her parents
with tremendously technical disserta :
tons on the habits, habitat, teInpera-
ment and character of the squiraning
atom that furnishes beauty with silk
attire. Now what was begun as an
occupation of childhood is a subject of
serious and seemingly permanent inter-
est with the beautiful debutante. and
the family home in Fifty-third Street is
fairly cluttered with the paraphernalia
of her peculiar pastiIne.
One charm must be granted the
Duchess of Misunderstanding violet
glory Of her eyes. They are of that
unusual blue SO priced by painters
and poets of the Rossetti school, and
which, while they may look more soul
full than they are, have compelling
depth more attractive than the black
est orbs. Her grace is not the most
beautiful of women, bat when she lifts
the lids or those eyes and the parting