The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-07
From the Boston Herald.

From the Boston Herald.
 H EST of all the storm brought with |n it, in the years gone, sleighing 0 parties for grown-ups as it still does in country towns for the lucky folk who know the simpler pleasures that life
 used to provide more generously than modern complexity allows.
 Chief among the joys of the seghing party is its impromptu character. Mary Lively glances out of her window at the unbroken white patch that lies before her door. It's the very excuse she's been looking for. Her own particular set do the stirring.
 Nowadays it means a half-hour at the telephone in the snug warmth of the H.
 brary. But in rye good old tyme' it in- volved tying her bonnet under her chin,'
 drawng on her big coat and fur gloves, and sallying forth to collect her forces. The journey ends at the livery stable, where all day long the far-sighted pro-
 prietor had been overhauling half a dozen roomy old sleighs.
 Somehow, in ones recollection of the
 past at least, the first good snow was always coincdent with the full of the moon. And so twas under the guidance of those two wirser genii that score of jolly townsfold assembled by early candle light at the Lively homestead, of course, equipped for the fun.
 Almost as soon as Mary Lively's mes
 sage had been delivered there was sud- tox. per repositories. There were wristlets and leggins, eartabs and fascinators,
 blanket-shawls and long fringed mufflers, hug tights and mittens, all knit at
 home by grandmother and auntie out of honest, thick wool.
 And there were melon hoods and pet ticoats, perhaps a quilted relic saved for just such occasions, or one of good red flannel. Where, oh, where, ye dam sells. of the present, with your batiste and taffeta and messaline confectons, would you find in all your drawers one good red flannel petticoat, did Dame Fashion ever restore the seighing party to it's empty pedestal?
 Grace of outline was sacrificed ruthless ly and slender figures became miniature
 mountains as they wrapped themselves in layer after layer of protection.
 While the despoiling of cedar strong | holds was ip progress bricks were heat l ing in the ovens. Even short logs found | themselves toasting for hours in the ash pans of tall stoves so that when even ing came there were dozen or more
 ready to wrap in pieces of old carpet l nod fAI
 Funny little bundles of femininity wad-
 dled beside heavy laden towers of mas
 culinity, and the silent streets were gay
 with laughter and chatter. But there was
 livelier chatter and more riotous laugh ter when the 20-odd merrymakers tum-
 bled into the big ark and tried to fit | themselves into it's suddenly dwindlpg space.
 1 Of course there Is a goal for all such
 sleighing parties. And in every we'll regulated expedition 1t Is a country hotel we'll and favorably known for its food. Not a smart roadhouse catering
 to the automobile trade. with its would
 be emulation of fine. city cafes. but a
 good, honest inn, with a best parlor'
 stiff in horsehair and brocatelle, with | portraits in crayon of the proprietor
 family and steel engravlngs of historic
 American scenes as wall decorations. l After a gourmet's feast 1t needs only
 steam cups of coffee and an hour of
 dancing on an administer carpet to make
 the most sluggish of blood forget >that
 outside the mercury is dropping to one,
 two or three degrees below. Etiouiette. was as well defined when | sletghing parties were elegant func- tions as today in the. details of an aft
 ernoon tea. Just as they ate chicken Eand waffles and danced the polka and
 schottische afterwards. so they sang on the homeward way. And the songs: Just same -ones, my dears, that were sung on straw rides in summer, or sit ting on the front porch while the har- vest moon looked down through droop- ing elm boughs. Just the same ones that this year and