Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-12
.HIS week has a delightful pro-

gram for the dancing contn-
gent. Mrs. Clover's fancy dress
ball, on St. Valentines night;
the third Bachelors cotillon.
the MacVeagh cotillon in honor of Miss
Helen Taft, and housewarming for the
last new cabinet home, and the navy
yard hop with the Preston Gibson sur
prise party at the Play House for Miss
Taft to start the week with, are all at
fractions of first order. The Turkish am
bassador has arranged an evening recep-
| ton for the diplomatic corps Wednesday,
and there is no end OF dinners in Official
and resident homes and other places En-
tering on the last fortnight OF the season,
the prospects seem good that 1t Will wind
up with the traditional whirl OF gayety.
The past week, with the visit of Count
Apponyi of Austria-Hungary, and o11clal
Inequalities In his honor. and the open
ing of the Play House, the last ADDITION
to the unusual enjoyments of the capital,
used up any leisure apparent on soclai
calendars The usual round of dinners
for Miss Taft was the feature of the
week, and none of the winters long list
was pretter than Miss Barbours party
Friday night. when the evening was nm
ished by small cotillon. The Dupont
dinner and dance Wednesday night was a
large one, when Miss Taft was also the
guest Of honor. and met most of the
| smart folks of the capital
The congressional reception at the
White House Tuesday night was attended
by nearly 1,4OO people, about the num-
Der invited, so it is said 1t would re-
qure a remarkably varied acquaintance
for any one person to recall having ever
seen 200 of them before. The dozen wom-
en- or so who wore fine jewels with tiaras
or other sparkling head adornment stood
out as real celebrities. They furnished
most of the evenings pleasure to the
hundreds to whom real gems are as yet
requirements of the future. But more
people pay attention to the conventional
demands of polite society in the matter
of dress than they did. say. fifteen years
ago, and manners are better, too. WOm-
en- in fimsy fnery. to have any care OF
their own dress, are necessarily gentler
in movement, and one rarely sees pre-
meditated rudeness in White House gath
erings. 1t is we'll it is so, for it meets
in the proper spirit and shows an appre-
citation for the comfortable arrange
ments which have gradually been evolved
for these occasions and which 1t would
now seem could hardly be improved upon.
The right of the American woman to
wear a high-necked dress used to be In
sisted on some years ago because good
Queen Victoria prescribed just what par
| ticular point the line of decolletage should
uncover, and there have been and are
now scores Of official and other hostesses
| who believe that way still But they rep
resent such a tiny minority as to only
suggest personal tastes. We have only mad
one cabinet officer in the last two Or
three decades who would not appear at
any kind of a social event. He may have
had other reasons for his plain ways
than the one which covered the rest-he
would not wear dress suit No trouble
on that score with the modern statesman
or the man looking that way.
Time was when, after every evening re-
ception, there used to creep into print a
few old jokes about the entire safety of
leaving your wraps and hat out in the
lobby in the care of old Jerry and his as