The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-07-26
WHAT TO DO. AND HOW
A Hard Proposition for the Hostess How She Entertained An IIl-As-
 sorted Company-Simple x s.k3ssse@l Fan Did 1t. sa

It is easy enough, to entertain "a large evening company There .sslF always the chance for an elaborate specially prepared something in the way of ingenious games, charades, ia concert, or amateur vaudeville. The supper, too, gives the hostess a chance to display her originality. But when there are merely four or five guests young people preylously un- acquainted, and of whose tastes and inclinations even the hostess herself is ignorant, then the task of creat1ng pleasant evening is no easy one 1 can assure you.
 Such a problem came my way this week. As its solution proved so ern~ inently satisfactory, I will give the de- tails of the evening hoping to help some other hostess.
 To begin with I was entertaining in my countryw home a young. city cou- sin, a girl of nineteen, with most pro- .nounced city ways and dress. She was not musical, nor did she play cards. She adored dancing, but my parlor was much too small to con- sider this form of amusement.
 The four young people asked gIo meet her, being the only desirable ones in the small hamlet, were a young man just about to enter college whose taste ran to books and music, his younger sister just entering on her second year ata high school and as shy as a violet, speaking only when spoken to and when flushing such a beautifuf rosy red that the speaker felt sorry and glad at once. Sorry to have caused the.emotion producing the blush, and pleased at the wonder full beauty it imparted to the young face. ss brother and sister, he a young fruit farmer who could glibly talk of the yield per acre forSstraw berries or cur rants, but whose parlor tricks were limited to a-recital of how many an- tos had passed his farm the day be- fore. sfs.ss 4
 l His sister, just home from a Qual- CT seminary; was disposed mainly to study the city guests gown, and in this absorption appeared perfectly satisfied to sit in corner. = Now you will admit that with this heterogeneous human material it was no easy matter ito produce a pleas It was done, however, in this way. After the first awkward period of in troduction was over, asked the mu- sical young man to play. After giv- ing his show piece, I handed around some1 little jingles that. could be sung to well: known airs, and with the youth at the piano, I collected the
 
 they were singing with great gusto the jingles prepared. Then I offer prize for an original jingle that could be sung to the air of Yankee Doodle, and to my aFnazement the young farmer came up smiling with the following:
 1 "Old John Brown he had a eow, ,t 1 A COW the best that's born, sir. l She wandered off with an old SOW 1 And ate up all his corn, sir.
 Old John Brown he got mad
 |. And tied her to a stake, sir. l The next time if she got away l He said she'd take the cake, sir.' i It was surprising how he rose in the estimation of the college youth, who l was wrestling with mi-literary efl fusion that was nowhere near com l pletion in the time limit
 Then, the ice nicely broken. WE l played the old time game of "Conse quences" followed by a modification ] of the Donkey" game, showing on g l sheet a large moon face with a single l eye. 0he young people were blind folded and the one who struck tht | eye with a cane won another prize. I It was all very simple, but by the end of the evening it proved that you l can assirnilate even such incongruou: | tastes if you bring them all down ts | the level of simple fun that produces l a congeniality of tastes. It must b, along lines that do not require dee, | thought or the standard of social en tertaining on an elaborate scale.
 THE HOSTESS.