The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-15
ALL ABOUT PARTIES

!" across es@ the he street?n st? ii inquired d the
 tall, lank householder who had been carefully peering through the net window curtains. assuming that though home with cold little polite amuse- ment was due him. ''SiX tables and twenty -four chairs have gone in. Now don't you wish you had learned to play nah -jongg?"
 five told you before I 6on't know that blond bride said his wife. There s nothing to get excited about over par ty this time of year-everybody gives parties and nobody can go to all of them and live! After you've had chick en salad, meringue buildings and choco- late cake ten days running you are ready to go away and die uncomforta- ply, let me tell you! And somebody else always gets the prize. Or if you get it, you have one like it at home. which puts a crimp ill your enthusiastic thanks!
 "I've studied this matter of parties lot" the tall, lank householder told his wife, reaching for a forbidden cigar when she was not looking. 'Td class parties among the things which nobody likes much but knows he must go through with because they are good for him.
 "Invariably when a woman receives an invitation to a party she bursts forth in loud lamentations. If it is something she'd like to attend she has already ac- cepted another invitation for that date, ff,,,, ..I, rnt1 t1,n,. hn shot than seen aE there isn't an excuse under the four square of heavens can opy for her to decline. The cat sending her the invitation no longer ago than yesterday heard her say blithely she hadn't a thing to do next Wednesday, so she cant plead an engagement. Shes known never to be i'll, so she cant drag in a headache. That blurb about hay ing to meet an old school friend at the train who is going south has whiskers and there is nothing to do but go and suffer and chalk up one against her hostess. And the hostess sent her the invitation after much mental wriggling, trying to get out of so doing. No the hostess says despairingly, there's noth- ing to do but include that tiresome Mrs. Sodamint, because if she is left out there's no limit to the things she can say about one.
 "Giving party is wonderful mental and spiritual exercise and every woman ought to do it occasionally for that req son. First, there is the delicate tact necessary to impress George with the absolute impossibility of evading this party. His shrieks and moans and flat handbook she ignores ruthlessly as she explains that unless they give party themselves nobody will ask them to their social occasions Then she tries to lure him on to saying that it will be all right if she asks the Rubbertrees and the Cap Sicums at the same time in spite of thelr famous feud. He's a gOner either way, Capsicums' and Rubbertrees' hissing at each other practically ruins the party, she'll blame the catastrophe upon hIm and if he says no she'll do it anyhow and blame him twice as much.
 ''Then she has all the excitement Of deciding what she can borrow and from whom-hecause, no matter how many dozens of things a girl gets for wedding presents she always is short of some thing when she gives party. Lots ot women hate to lend spoons and knlck- knacks. because if they send sixteen carat silver what they get back is some body ese's tinware, and they spend the rest of their lives at parties trying to identify their own.
 '.The menu causes the hostess the most anguish. If she just yearns to have creamed sweetbreads and peas she recalls that six women before her have served them, and when she endeavors to think of something equally good she has to go to bed with a headache. As the day approaches her agony increases She knows the cakes are going to fall the ices melt, the coffee will be weak and Huda won't have good luck with her rolls Her husband and children are shooed out of the house early, every body is on edge. and 15 minutes before time some feminine fiend calls up to say sweetly that she cant come.
 "The only time from start to finish that hostess enjoys herself is the 1j minutes following the instant when the crowd settles down to the bridge tables. Nothing more can happen and things