The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-20

brown waistcoats instead of evening dress, seems to show the burden of re- sponsibility.
 "The occupants of the boxes also seemed to enjoy the spirit of sreunion on Mon day night at the Metropolitan though they had probably seen each other at the summer resorts or at outdoor horse shows and races near New York There was also an atmosphere of pleasurable excitement before everyone was settled in the orchestra stalls. Before passing through the swinging doors to be lost in that great area on the foor-below the boxes-there was time for a word and 6 greeting as friends chaneed to meet.
 Mrs. Howard Page stopped for min ute to talk to the family group, in- cluding Mrs. Paul Cravath and her daugh- ter who was in a gown and cloak Of white with snowy fox furs to frame her face. Miss Calender, the friend of sing CTS and composers, with a cerise collar on her evening cloak catching the eye. went in with a group of music lovers, and Mrs. Charles Greenough, the young est New York woman with prematurely white hair, was seen before she took her place among the long rows of people in orchestra stalls. where the handsome gowns, equalling the parterre-elegance, go to prove how much prosperity there is and how many different circles of SO ciety there are in New York On the opening night etiquette permits even the most important people to arrive early and this was fortunate because not only does Manon Lescaut, like other opera heroines, have all her joys, but also all her good gowns in the beginning, and the second act has merriment and stac- cato activity. Mrs. William Douglas Sloane, as in previous years. was the first hostess to take her place in the parterre. Neither by example nor gentle sugges- tion, however has she ever succeeded in establishing any opera reforms.
 Many of the women arrived together in groups, and the men, as usual, came in carriages that followed. This, too, is a New York custom, or rather one of the privileges of our national type, the tired business man. for dinner parties are always separated, largely on account of the cigar said to make early arrival impossible. The first night shows the boxes occupied chiefly by little family parties, so the men are more apt to avail themselves of this feminine, though exclusively American, leniency. Mrs. Ern- est Iselin, who was formerly Miss Polly Whittier, and Mrs. Lewis Iselin, former ly Miss Marie de Neufville, came together walking side by side, their husbands fol- lONih6 ihtti. MID. nary ayit " All- ney. who wore d wonderful Russian cloak and a Russian crown in keeping with a certain medieval style she affects, came with Mrs. Payne Whitney, and there were several other groups in which young wom- en related by marriage sat beside each other in the family opera box. Of all the sumptuous opera cloaks the most novel was the long mantle worn by Mrs. William G. Loew. It was made entirely of strands of white crystals or beads and had material of jet beads as q trim ming. She wore her high tiara, large pearl earrings and jewels, and famed as she is for her imposing appearance in her fathers box, she was in great con- trast to her sister-in-law, Mrs. George F. Baker, Jr.. who was in simple rose-color and with her hair worn so closely around her head that it was boyish in contour D