Social Life Part 47

The young ladies and gentlemen must call upon the chaperon within a few days and the host calls upon the mothers to express thanks for the pleasure of the daughter's attendance. The men invited must each call within three days upon the especial lady to whom they devoted their time during the evening, or if this is impossible, leave a card.

A simpler form of this entertainment is where the host calls upon each proposed guest, and if the invitation is accepted, leaves two entrance tickets, and one for some male relative who must accompany her. The party meet in the box, where the host and a lady chaperon greet them.

After the theater supper is served at some fas.h.i.+onable resort, or perhaps at the home of some friend, where dancing occasionally follows the supper. After calls are expected.

These parties are sometimes given by a lady, when the invitations are sent by informal notes in her own name, and a six o'clock dinner laid in her own home precedes the opera. After the entertainment the guests return in carriages to the house where a little supper is served, and perhaps some dancing varies the program.

Occasionally this entertainment takes the form of a matinee party of ladies only, who adjourn at its close to the hostess's home for a supper.

Dress for the Opera.

When a gentleman invites a lady to the opera, he should tell her what part of the house they are to occupy. If it is a box she must at least wear a light opera cloak, even if she does not array herself in full evening dress. However, evening toilet, no bonnet and beautifully dressed hair, are the correct thing. At an opera matinee, elegant visiting dress and dainty bonnets are always worn. If a gentleman is to escort a lady to the opera in any of the public conveyances she must wear street toilet.

Picnic Parties.

Picnics and excursions are delightful summer entertainments. But it is essential that whoever goes on a picnic should possess the power to find "sermons in stones, books in the running brooks, and good in everything;" know how to dress, know where to go, and above all, know what to carry to eat.

A very great variety of food should be avoided, also soft puddings and creamy mixtures of any sort, which persistently "leak out." Plain, substantial food, simple and well-cooked, should ever be chosen, with a few sweet and simple dainties to top off with. This can be divided up among the party by the one who is most executive, with the ladies to furnish the substantials and the gentlemen the beverages. The men a.s.sume the expenses of the boats or other conveyances.

Paraffine paper is indispensable in wrapping up the viands, which are much more wisely carried in boxes, than baskets, as the former can be thrown away, and the fewer the burdens on the home-coming the better.

A rubber coat or mackintosh is also a necessity, for no matter how warm the day, there is a risk of sitting out in the woods on the bare ground. This can be easily managed in a shawl strap. It is best not to carry a tablecloth, but if something is preferred to spread upon the ground, a strip of enameled cloth is the most satisfactory thing, and whatever is spilled upon it can be easily cleaned off. j.a.panese napkins take the place of linen, and wooden plates, which can be thrown away, are most desirable, like those which the bakers use for pies.

There are several important items which must not be forgotten, and among them are hand-towels and soap, combs, hand-mirror, thread, needle and thimble, a corkscrew and a can opener.

What to Eat.

There should be a clear understanding at the outset what eatables each one is to bring. One girl may promise to furnish a certain proportion of the rolls or sandwiches, and another, part of the cake. Others may promise cold or potted meats, sardines, stuffed eggs, Saratoga potatoes, olives, pickles, fruit, lemonade and cold coffee. Salad may easily be carried if the lettuce and chicken or lobster are arranged in a dish set in a basket, and the dressing contained in a wide-mouthed bottle or pickle jar. The best way to transport lemonade, if fresh water can be readily procured at the picnic grounds, is to take the lemon juice and sugar in a jar, adding the water after the party reach their destination. Apollinaris water is excellent for lemonade. The coffee and milk should have been put together before leaving home, but the sugar is carried separately.

Tongue and Sandwiches.

To begin with the substantials, a cold roast, a boiled tongue, deviled eggs, are simple and tasty. The roast may be sliced off before going, and carefully wrapped up, but the tongue should be carried whole and cut up when required, or it is apt to become dry. The eggs are easily prepared, being hard boiled, cut lengthwise, the yolks taken out, mixed in a bowl with pepper, salt and mustard, and a few drops of Worcester and put back again in the whites.

Different kinds of sandwiches may be served. For one time there may be finger-rolls, split, the inside hollowed out and filled with chopped chicken or tongue, and the two sides tied together with the narrowest of ribbon. Again, bread and b.u.t.ter, cut wafer thin and rolled, may appear. Sweetbread sandwiches, sardine sandwiches, egg sandwiches, are delicious and easily prepared variations upon the everlasting ham and tongue. Very dainty sandwiches are made of two thicknesses of thin bread and b.u.t.ter, with a layer between of cream cheese and chopped water cress. The fruit should be heaped in a basket or arranged as a centerpiece with the flowers.

Ice cream may be taken to a picnic without much additional trouble.

The brick molds can be so packed by a confectioner in a pail of ice that there will be no danger of the cream melting. For this, of course, wooden plates are not available, but china saucers will have to be transported. For the sweets some plain cake and bon-bons, and a box of crystallized ginger are all-sufficient. Cold tea, with lemon and ice, is certainly the most refres.h.i.+ng and satisfactory.

If more side dishes are preferred, there are olives, salted peanuts or pecans, gherkins, radishes or club-house cheese and wafers to choose from, and if berries in season are desired, they are best carried in a gla.s.s preserve jar.

If one person gives a picnic, she should expect to furnish all the food, the means of transportation for her guests, the plates, gla.s.ses, knives, forks and napkins--in short, to defray all the expenses of the trip. This is apt to prove a rather expensive proceeding, if there are many guests invited, but it is a very pretty style of entertaining for those whose means permit them to indulge in it. A "Basket Picnic" is a more general affair, where each member of the party supplies a quota of the provisions. Some one person undertakes the charge of the party, and invites such people to join it as she thinks would make it a success. The girls usually provide the refreshments.

Chaperons.

It might seem needless to say that there should always be a chaperon on picnic parties if it were not that even in this day there appears, in some places, to be a lack of proper understanding of this subject.

Dwellers in large cities see matters in a clearer light, and a young man who is thoroughly versed in points of etiquette will not think of inviting a young lady to accompany him to the theater without also requesting her mother or a married friend to join them. In the same manner he asks a chaperon to go with them when he escorts a young lady to a ball or party.

When a number of young people get off together, they are apt, without the least intention of impropriety, to let their spirits carry them away and lead them into absurdities they would never commit in a graver moment. If a chaperon is bright and cheery, sympathizing in the enjoyment of the young people, and avoiding making her presence a bar upon innocent gayety, she need be no drawback to the pleasure of the expedition. On the contrary, most young men and women will feel a security and sense of comfort from having some one along to take the responsibility of the conduct of the party that they could never know were there no chaperon present.

It is a good rule, if possible, to have an equal number of persons of each s.e.x on a picnic. This is especially desirable if the party is to be on the water, in rowboats, where each boatload must be evenly divided. The hostess or projector of the party may arrange in whose escort each girl is to go, or this may be left to the young people themselves.

A Marshmallow Toast.

This is exclusively a girl's entertainment. A very pretty one was given to about twenty girl friends. The guests were invited in the afternoon from two until six o'clock. A large room had its furniture removed and in its stead were placed small tables, which contained trays holding marshmallow candies, skewers and lamps. The mallows were toasted and eaten after a little supper. Tables were spread prettily with white linen and decorated with flowers. The supper was arranged as follows:

Oyster Patties. b.u.t.tered Bread. Sandwiches.

Salad with French Dressing. a.s.sorted Cakes. Chocolate.

Toasted Marshmallows.

The young girls had a delightful time and the entertainment was simple and inexpensive.

Roof Parties.

Roof parties are the very latest diversion which the girl who stays in town is enjoying. They are the very jolliest entertainments imaginable, and the best part of them is that one can go in any sort of an outing suit without feeling _de trop_. Even the dwellers in the big apartment houses are able to give these high-in-the-air festivals, and they have become very popular from the fact that they are so informal and delightfully novel.

If your roof is s.p.a.cious and walled in by a high parapet so much the better, for, of course, one can always imagine danger if there be only a narrow coping about the edge.

Pick out a night when the clerk of the weather will be polite enough to give moon and stars and soft southern breezes. Then cover the surface of the roof with rugs or else stretch a matting over the tin.

Improvise couches upon boxes covered with rugs, or bring up a couple of cots and pile cus.h.i.+ons upon them.

Palms and plants placed about always add to the effect, and if you wish the place to look like a little bit of fairy land hang Chinese lanterns on strings stretched about the edge, and when they are lit they will look remarkably pretty. If the roof be provided with ledges between your own and your neighbors, the bricks can be spread with napkins and refreshments arranged thereon.

Almost any sort of menu is permissible, but salads, sandwiches, olives, ice cream and liquid refreshments of all kinds are always in order.

Bachelor's Parties.

Bachelors who live in apartments are giving "Dutch" parties on roofs, and in those cases the refreshments consist of beer and ale served from the wood, rye bread and cheese sandwiches, sausages cooked in a chafing-dish and Rhine wine in the cup.

Roof parties can be so elaborate that they will cost quite as much as a more pretentious function, but they are more enjoyable when they are simply gotten up. One was given in a fas.h.i.+onable part of the city, and the aid of the caterer and the decorator had been utilized in such a manner as to produce the effect of a gorgeous _al fresco_ reception. A gaily striped awning was stretched across the part of the roof where the edibles were spread upon a table loaded with flowers. A carpet was spread for a dance at one side with only the stars for a canopy. About the entire roof and reaching far up in a pyramid of light there were lanterns lit by electric lamps fastened within. There was a pleasant breeze blowing, and these many swaying colored lights produced a beautiful effect. Rich rugs carpeted the roof surface, and flags were draped about the high coping.

This party was given on the roof of a large hotel and was such a success that a number of similar ones were arranged for.

A Flower Party.

Another young girls' entertainment is a "flower party"--an appropriate name, as the writer once attended one where all the young ladies wore snowy gowns, each beautifully adorned with the wearer's favorite flower. A large silver salver filled with sprigs of flowers awaited the young men in the reception-hall, and upon his entrance each selected according to his fancy a flower from the waiter and sent it up the decorated staircase to find its mate and the young lady wearing the matching one met him on the landing, pinned his chosen flower to the lapel of his coat and became his partner for the evening.

Bicycle Teas.

With the bicycle comes the bicycle tea. In the large cities these teas have been given for charity and have been great successes. But there is no reason why any girl may not give an attractive bicycle tea and make it very original. Sandwiches in the shape of tennis rackets, with an olive steak in the center for a ball, are among the novelties.

Sandwiches in the shape of a wheel and a saddle might easily be cut.

Bicycle lanterns, which resemble glowworms, should furnish decoration.