| Show LENTEN GAIETIES The Curious Clubs of Our National Na-tional Capital THE BELLES OF THE KITCHEN The Dancing Club and How the Obnoxious Were Frozen OutVery Wicked Girls Who Play Token WASHINGTON Feb 12 lSHSpecial correspondence I cor-respondence of THE HERALDLent began I this week and on Ash Wednesday society I inflated its lungs with the air of sackcloth and ashes During that day society fasted but on Thursday tho plans were laid for a series of mild entertainments and the prospect pros-pect is that the Lenten season will be even fuller of social gatherings than usual There will lie quiet little breakfasts and luncheons mixed with churchgoings and prayers and the scanty meals of the day Trill be made up by big dinners at night There will be 5 oclock teas and there will Toe a big ball in the centre of the season The theatres are always well patronized during Lent and the thousand and one societies which have been organized in Washington will hold their little entertainments entertain-ments and the clubs will flourish in all their glory Washington is peculiarly a city of classes There is nothing in the heavens above or in the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth that is not represented rep-resented by a club Washington These clubs are literary social gastronomic terpsichorean athletic sewing and of every other imaginable character They are really clubs but they are called classes and they are a feature of Washington I society which you do not find otherwheres FAIR LADIES WHO DANCE The dancing class organized a year since and whichduring the past season has been holding fortnightly dances is perhaps the best entitled to prominence although it is in reality the one of the whole list which resolves itself into nothingness during Lent The articles of incorporation having boen duly drawn up it was found at the first dance given last season by the class that several undesirable elements had somehow some-how crept in despite all efforts to make the organization most tremendously exclusive in its character To eliminate those detri mentals without being aggressively rude was the problem which the swell members propounded among themselves finally hitting hit-ting upon a happy solution of the difficulty The rule being that the class should meet each week in turn at the house of a different member the proposition of several of the detrimentals to be among the early entertainers enter-tainers was quickly accepted When the evenings arrived the unsuspecting hostesses host-esses at the very last moment were overwhelmed over-whelmed with an avalanche of dainty notes in which the writers deplored their inability inabil-ity to attend the meeting of the class on that especial evening By a preconcerted arrangement the male member dovn on he list of swells failed to put in appearance appear-ance and the mortifying consciousness that hey were being treated to a genuine freeze out was gradually borne in upon the consciousness of the unfortunate female who had aspired to identify i herself With those who considered themselves the elect of society On one occasion where an elaborate elab-orate supper had been prepared for 300 guests there was hardly a score present to partake of the lavish hospitality The chaperones selected were in the majority of cases those who had ball rooms attached to their residences in which they could entertain r en-tertain the dancing class Among the number num-ber were Mrs Senator Hearst Mrs William Wil-liam A Hammond Mrs John McLean Mrs Howard Ganson White Mrs Dahl gren and Lady Pauncefote while the members mem-bers included Miss Sherrill the Misses Pauncefote the Misses Ernest Miss Everett Ever-ett Miss Dahlgren Miss Edie Miss Ban croft Miss Wanamaker the Misses Myer Miss May Williams Miss Mitchell Miss Cox Mrs Richardson Clover Mrs McKee and Mrs Russell Harrison At the beginning begin-ning of the present season it was decided after much discussion to abandon the plan of having the class entertained by the various I vari-ous chaperones and accordingly the National Na-tional Rifles hall was engaged for the alternate alter-nate Tuesdays throughout the season THE BOWLING BEAUTIES AND THEIR READING CLASS The bowling class is another fashionable organization of which the membership almost al-most identical with the dancing class The meetings are held once a week Saturday afternoons having the preference at the line bowling alle5 attached to Heurichs brewery Tea is served on these occasions I and such of the members as do not care to take part in the game converse with friends i I and deport themselves generally as they I would at an Invited reception the chaperones chap-erones present constituting an informal receiving I re-ceiving party The reading class first organized some j half dozen years since is in reality the most exclusive of all the Lenten classes inasmuch In-asmuch as the membership has never been allowed to extend beyond the dozen well known society women who composed it at the start Among these were Mrs N S Lincoln Mrs Washington McLean Mrs Hazen Mrs Rodgers Mrs Edward McCauley Mc-Cauley Mrs Seth Ackley Mrs John Cropper Crop-per and Mrs Lothrop Bradley Meeting every Thursday during Lent the morning hours are spent in the reading aloud by a member of one or more chapters of the latest lat-est book attracting public attention here or abroad after which its relative literary merits are discussed atlength over a luncheon lunch-eon fit for the most exacting gourmand Why notbecause it is Lent one need not go hungry neither is it wise to spoil digestion diges-tion with illcooked food There is a sage old maxim as worthy of acceptance now as when first uttered that In Lent it is more wholesome to the soul to starve ones sin and not her bin Another class of more ambitious literary character was that organized last season by Mrs Madeline Vinton Dahlgren which held fortnightly meetings Wednesday evenings even-ings during Lent On these occasions the programme generally included a reading by the hostess of her own work or extracts from these of well known authors after which the lion of the evening was introduced intro-duced in the person of one of the popular writers of the day in prose or poetry who favored the company with the recital of an article especially prepared for the occasion The late historian Bancroft was among the number selected for that purpose the stipulation in each case being that the person per-son chosen for thishonor should have published pub-lished at least one book CLUBS IN FRENCH AND SPANISH The French class was another ponular assemblage of last season and one of the few which held its meetings in the evening As may be imagined it was largely composed com-posed of the foreign element of Washington society represented by the diplomatic corps and membership outside of that august body was limited to such of the younger members of Washington society as conversed con-versed fluently in the French language as spoken in Paris Miss Batcbeller daughter of the present minister to Portugal was a prominent member Among the most memorable mem-orable entertainments given by the French class was that of Countess Sponneck wife of the Danish minister The Spanish class held its meetings in the morning and unlike the French class was wholly lacking in the male element 1 < t < biIJO < c L though composed of no less a charming set of women among whom were Madame I Romero Mrs Don Cameron Mrs Senator Cockrell Mrs exminister Foster Miss Ida I Thompson and a large contingent of the I Spanish speaking South Americans COOKING CLUBS AND TWENTYFIVE CENT rEASTS A break fast class of twelve with the limitation lim-itation at each feast fixed at S3 thus making it imperative on the hostess to provide a course breakfast at 25 cents per capita was one of the short lived experimental organizations organi-zations of last season which will hardly be revived this Lent Another similar organization organ-ization known as the breakfast club with the limitation of SO for expenditure on each occasion was likewise illfated Born in merriest laughter it was doomed to expire in much gnashing of teeth in which envy hatred malice and all manner of uncharit ableness had part The initial breakfasts were voted great successes and then the little rift within the lute was formea by the accusation from one of the organizers that things were not being conducted on that scale of strict honesty and economy which had characterized her feasts These accusations ations taking definite forms were to the effect that the various butchers bakers and candlestick makers patronized by certain hostesses had upon close questioning admitted ad-mitted the fact that although the choice cuts of meat and hothouse vegetables furnished nished by them had really been sold at the absurdly small price indicated on the bill of fare the circulation of which among the guests at the close of the meal was one of he ironclad rules of the class matters had been equalized on the private bills subse quently rendered Here was a state of things calling for reform on the most approved ap-proved civil service principles and accord ncly resolving herself into a committee of one on law and order the irate organizer proceeded > to deliver a lengthy sermon to the members of the breakfast club taking for her text the timehonored axiom as to honesty being the best policy This discourse dis-course though meeting with that courteous attention which the most exacting orator could require had the effect of bringing to a sudden termination the breakfast club A SENSIBLE CLUB The emergency class one having a very practically useful bearing as the object was through a series of lectures to instruct the fashionable audience on the speediest and most efficacious remedies to be employed in the case of sudden bruises burns or broken limbs where the immediate attendance of a physician is not practicable Mrs Harrison Harri-son Mrs Morton Madame Romero Mrs Senator McMillan and Mrs John W Foster were among the large number of interested listeners who gathered once a week to listen to the extemporaneous lectures of the young physician selected for that purpose At these meetings the ladies were questioned in regard to the subject previously discussed dis-cussed and such of them as cared to do so assisted the physician in the adjustment of bandages supports and straps for keeping the broken limbs in proper position until the services ot a doctor could be secured For this purpose it was customary to engage en-gage as a model some ragged urchin to whom the money paid for his services in this respect seemed a small fortune Accounts Ac-counts of these meetings having gotten into the papers the young physician found himself him-self besieged in all quarters from people living in remote country districts to have his talks to the emergency class embodied in pamphlet form in order that the practical practi-cal application of his suggestions might be available to those who stood in actual need of just such lectures EUCHER AND 1OKEU The eucher class leads in the list of card i I parties incident Lent The meetings i held on Monday evenings and the membership member-ship includes Dr andMrs William A Hammond Ham-mond Dr and Mrs Alexander Magruder Mr and Mrs William Thompson Harris Mrs Philip Phillips Mrs and Miss Phenix and Lieutenant and Mrs William Hiil A poker class which has resolved itself into a state of innocuous desuetudeattained during the period of its existence such notoriety no-toriety that even now the audacity of the leading lady is mentioned with bated breath at the metropolitan and meridian dUGs several of the members of which have reason rea-son to remember the alluring little meetings which they first attended in blissful ignorance ignor-ance that they were other than the pleasantly pleas-antly social affairs they purported to be The woman whose name formerly appeared in every list of prominent society was a born financier her transfers of stocks and bonds finally reaching such figures as bid fair at an early date to rival the wizard of Wall street One night however a young lamb was shorn so close that his pitiful bleatings over the loss of his fortune resounded re-sounded through the walls of the clubhouse club-house and the lady was waited upon by several indignant elders whose conversation teemed with impertinent suggestions as to her trying the effects of a speedy change of climate So convincing were the arguments that the charming little house in the West End was closed the same day and shaking the dust of the city from her feet the lady bade an abrupt farewell to the nations capital THE BELLES Or TnE KITCHEN Matrimonially considered the cooking class gotten up some half a dozen years since by a party of pretty young girls who dubbed themselves Belles of the Kitchen I was the most successful of the many classes begun continued or ended in Lent These queens of gastronomy acquitted themselves so well of their selfimposed task that before be-fore the close of the second season every member had married or become engaged No restrictions were made as to the amount i or number of dishes served at the luncheons given by the Belles of tbe Kitchen One i I all important stipulation however was that each and dish should be I every personally I person-ally prepared by the hostess of the day As I each girl was given the privilege of inviting i some man of her acquaintance to the luncheons I lunch-eons the parties gradually narrowed down I to the same guests each time That the men so selected fully appreciated the honor I shown them is evident from the fact already recorded that in less than two seasons the I clatter of deftly wielded soup ladles had changed to the tuneful chimes of wedding bells THE CLUBS OF WICKED MEN I Washington is becoming a club city more I and more every day The wicked statesmen states-men here at the capital spend thousands every year at their clubs and there are a I dozen and more aristocratic ones The I swellest of all is the metropolitan club to which all the diplomats and the men about I town belong and the happenings of which I seldom get into the newspapers The cosmos cos-mos club is more of a scientific club and its I club rooms are in the house which Dolly Madison occupied after her husbands death The members of the Smithsonian Institution Institu-tion artists and others belong to it and it pretends to have a continuous feast of reason rea-son and flow of soul The gridiron club is made up of newspaper men It is the daughter of the clover club of Philadelphia Philadel-phia and is quite as famous as its mother It gives elegant spreads once a month and there is hardly a noted man in the country Who has not been dined at it President Harrison was one of the invited guests this winter but Secretary Windoms death prevented pre-vented his attendance The six oclock club is another dining club whose motto is said to be Grub and Gab and whose dinners cost 51 l a plate The gridiron dinners cost all the way from G upwards a plate and though there is plenty of good wine there is no drunkenness The navy has its clubs and the united service club is one of the I features of the capital GAMBLING CLUBS I A great deal of gambling is done here by prominent men on the sly and there are numerous quiet little clubs on the table I The days of faro and roulette have passed and it is now only poker eucher whist and other modest games which can be played with nothing but a deck of cards Pendle tons used to be the great gambling club of the capital and in the days of Henry Clay prominent men of both parties won and lost in it It was an elegant place the dinners of which were free and where one was not < so L i asked to pay unless bo wished It is recorded re-corded that one minister to China lost his I whole allowance for outfit and traveling expenses here one night and it is said that Clay was one of the best poker players whoever I who-ever came to Washington It used to be that there was a great deal of gambling done at the capital but card playing there I is falling into an innocuous desuetude though during a long night session it is apt I to break out again and the members seek the seclusion that the committee rooms I grant When the late Mr Wintersmith of Texas was chosen as door keeper of the House ho received a proposition from a noted gambler of his own state to establish a brace came at the capital We can call it a club wrote he and have our rooms in the basement You can catch tho I suckers and bring them in and I will bleed hem and well divide tile profits It is needless to say that Doorkeeper Winter smith did not fall in with the offer Miss GHONDT JR |
