| Show PASTIMES OF LADIES Outdoor Sports of American and English Women IMPORTANCE OF DANCING Gymnasium Exercises and 7alkins The Cotillon DinnerSome Sporting Implements Imple-ments for ladles NEW YORK May 131891 Special correspondence cor-respondence of THE HERALD J Her feet beneath her petticoat Like little mice stole in and out As if they feared the light But Ol she dances such a way I No sun upon an Easter day Is half so fine a sightSir Sir John Lucklintj The London Times says that the present season has been driving jump to a great height of favor amongst fashionable women wo-men It is a curious expression but enlightens us as to the liberty which even so great an authority takes with our common language There is no doubt of the fact that the pony phaeton and the pair of ponies are becoming becom-ing a great necessity to an energetic woman wo-man The little poney and the Ralli cart as a ladies pastime is a familiar figure at Newport in the season at a thousand country coun-try places and at the seaside in our own Central park and all through the west and south It has been much more THE C0STOSI Fon LADIES In the west and south to drive themselves than for those at the north consequently they drive better Only those who know how to drive well ought ever to drive for they not only endanger their own lives but a dozen lives beside Whoever has seen a runaway carriage run into another carriage and has beheld the breaking up can realize for the first time the tremendous force of an object inaction in-action The little Ralli cart can become a battering ram of prodigious force No form of recreation is so useful and so becoming as horseback exercise No Eng lish woman looks so well as when turned out for outofdoor exercise And our American women who buy their habits and bats in London are getting to have the same chic Indeed so immensely superior is the London habit considered that the French circus women who ride in the Bois making so great a sensation go over to London TO HAVE THEIR HABITS MADE and thus return the compliment which Eng lisp ladies pay to Paris in having all their dinner gowns and tea gowns made there Perhaps disliking this sort of copy the Englishwomen are becoming careless o P their appearance on horse back and are coming out in a straw hat a covert coat and a cotton skirt The soft felt hat has long been a favorite on the continent at watering places for the English and it is much easier for the head Still in case of a fall it does not save the head like a bard masculine hat We have not yet as a nation taken to cycling for women but many English women wo-men go all over the globe on a tricycle A husband and wife are often seen on a bicycle bi-cycle near London and women who lead sedentary lives in offices and schools make much of their Saturday afternoons thus Boating needs to be cultivated in America Amer-ica It is a superb exercise for DEVELOPING A GOOD FIGURE and to manage a punt has become a common com-mon accomplishment for the riverside girls Ladies have regattas on the Thames Golf has yet to be introduced among us r 11 to rival lawn tennis archery and ball Fencing which many actresses must learns learn-s a very admirable process for developing the figure The young princesses of Wales are adepts in this It requires an outfit of a dainty tunic to the knees a fencing jacket of soft leather with tight sleeves gauntlet gloves a mask a pair of foils and costs about fifteen fif-teen dollars American women as a rule are not fond of walking One must put in something like an attraction or a duty to rouse our delicate girls to walk They will not do it for their health alone Gymnastic teaching is however giving our girls more strength and it would be well if in every family of daughters there were some calisthenic training to develop the muscles and to give a more graceful walk TO TEACH A GIRL TO SWIMs is almost a duty and these splendid physical physi-cal exercises will have a great influence over that nervous distress which our climate cli-mate produces with its overfullness of oxygen ox-ygen But if girls do not like to walk they all like to dance and it is not intended as a pun when we mention that a great jump has been made back to the oldfashioned dancing in which freedom of movement is allowed Those who saw Mary Andersons matchless grace in the Winters Tale all tried to go and dance like her and to see Ellen Terrys spring in the pretty Olivia teaches one how entirely beautiful is this strong command of ones muscles From the german cctihon back to the Virginia reel is indeed a bound Our grandfathers knew how to dance We are fast getting back to them The earliest dancing masters were Frenchmen and our ancestors were taught to pirouette I pir-ouette as did Vestris when he was so ob liging as to say AFTER A ROYAL COMMAND The house of Vestris has always danced for that of Bourbon The galop has always been a great favor ite with the Swedes Danes and Russians while the redowa reminds one of the graceful grace-ful Viennese who dance it so well The ma zourka danced to wild Polish music is a poetical and active affair The introduction of Hungarian bands and Hungarian music is another reason why dancing has become a hop skip and a bound without losing dignity or grace Activity need not be vulgar The german cotillon born many years ago at Vienna to meet the requirements ol court etiquette is still the fashionable dance with which the ball closes Its favors fa-vors beginning with flowers and ribbons and bits of tinsel have NOW RIPENED INTO TANS bracelets gold scarfpins and pencil cases and many things more expensive Favors may cost 5000 for a fashionable ball or dance as they say in London The german is i dance of an infinite variety va-riety and to lead it requires a man of head One such leader who constructs new figures becomes a power in society The waltz galop redowa and polka step can all be utilized in it There is a slow walk in the quadrille figure a stately march the bows and curtsies of the ok minuet and above all the tour dc raise which is the means of locomotion from place to place The changeful exigencies of the various figures lead the forty or fifty or the two hundred to meet exchange greetings dance with each other Chang e their geographical position many times Indeed no army goes through more evolutions evolu-tions A pretty figure is La Corbeille I An nean etla fleu THE FIRST COUPLE PERFORMS a tour de raise after which the gentleman presents the lady with a basket containing a ring and a flower then resumes his seat The lady presents the ring to one gentleman the flower to another and the basket to a third The gentleman to whom she pre cents tho ring selects a partner for himself the gentleman who receives the flower dances with the lady who presents it while the other gentleman holds the basket in his hand and dances alone The kaleidoscope is one of the pretties figures The four celos perform a ton r dc noise then form as for a quadrille the next four couples in order to take positions behind the first four couples each of the I i l 8 latter couples facing the same as the coup les in front At a signal from the leader the ladies of the inner couples cross right hands move entirely round and turn into places by giving left hands to their partners part-ners At the same timo the outer couples waltz half round to opposite places AT ANOTHER SI + NAL the inner couples waltz entirely round and finish facing outward At the same time the I outer couples Chasse noise and turn at corners I cor-ners with right hands then dechasso and turn partners with left hands Valse generals gener-als with vis a vis Le Cavalier Trompo Is another favor ite figure Five or six couples perform a tour de raise They afterwards place them selves in ranks of two one couple behind the other The lady of the first gentleman leaves him and seeks a gentleman of another an-other column While this is going on the first gentleman must not look behind him The first lady and gentleman whom she has selected separate and advance on tip toe on each side of the column in order to deceive the gentleman at the head and en deavor to join each other for a waltz If the first gentleman is fortunate enough to seize his lady he leads off in a waltz if not he must remain at his post until he is able to take a lady THE LAST GENTLEMAN remaining dances with the last lady A very pretty figure and easily gotten up is called Les Drapeaus Five or six duplicate sets of small flags of national or fancy devices must be in readiness The leader takes a flag of each patternhis lady the duplicates They perform a four de raise The conductor then presents his flags to five or six ladies his partner presenting pre-senting hers to the gentlemen The gentlemen gen-tlemen then seek the ladies having the duplicates du-plicates and with them perform the tour de valsc waving flags as thoy dance To give a german in a private house a lady has the furniture removed from her parlors the floor covered with a crash over the carpet and a set of folding chairs for the couples to sit in The carpet and crash are very bad It is better to have a bare wooden floor if possible It is considered that all taking part in a german are introduced to one another and on no condition whatever must A LADY SO LONG AS SHE RErAI Sin S-in a german refuse to speak or to dance with any gentleman whom she may chance to receive as a partner Every American should learn that he can speak to anyone whom he meets at a friends house The roof is an Introduction and for the purpose of making his hostess comfortable the guest should at dinner party and dance speak to his next neighbor The laws of the german are so strict and to many so tiresome occasionally that a good many parties have adjourned it and merely dance the round dances the lancers and quadrilles winding up with Sir Roger de Coverly or Virginia reel The leader of the german must have a comprehensive glance n quick ear and eye and a great belief in himself General Edward Ed-ward Ferrero who made a good general declared that ho owed all his success in the I war to his training as a dancing master With all other qualities THE LEADER OF THE GERMAN must have tact It is no easy matter to get two hundred people into all sorts of combinations combi-nations and mazes and then to get them out I again to offend nobody and to produce thai elegant kaleidescope called the german The term tour dc raise is used technically meaning that the couple or couples per forming it will execute the round dance designated by the leader once round the room Should the room be small they make a second tour After the introduc tory tour de raise care must be taken by those who perform it not to select ladies and gentlemen from each other but from among those who are seated When the leader claps his hands to warn those who are prolonging the valso they must ammo diately cease dancing The favors for the german are often fans and this timehonored historic article o grows in beauty and expense every day And what various MEMORIES COME IN WITH THE FAN I It was created in primeval ages The Egyptian ladies had them of Lotus leaves and lately a breakfast was given all in Egyptian fashion except the eating The Roman ladies carried immense fans of peacocks cocks feathers They didnt open andshut like ours that is a modern invention The flabillifer or fanbearer was some young attendant generally male whose common business it was to carry his mistress fan There is a Pompeian painting of cupid as the fanbearer of Ariadne and lamenting her desertion of Theseus In Queen Eliza beths day the fan was usually made of feathers like the fan still used in the east The handle was richly ornamented and sot with stones fashionable lady was never without her fan which was held to her girdle gir-dle by a jeweled chain That fashion with the large feathers has returned in our day Queen Elizabeth dropped a silver handled fan into the moat at Arnstead hall which occasioned many madrigals Sir Francis Drake PRESENTED TO HIS ROYAL MISTRESS a fan of feathers white and red enameled with a half moon of mother olpearl Poor Leicester gave her as his New Years gift in 1574 a fan of white feathers set in a handle of gold garnished on one side with two very fair emeralds and fully garnished with rubies and diamonds and on each side a white bear his cognizance and two pearls hanging a lion romping and a white muzzled bear at his foot Just before Christmas in 1595 Elizabeth went to Kew dined at my Lord Keepers house and there was handed her a fine fan with a handle garnished with diamonds Fans in Shakespeares time seem to have been composed or ostrich feathers stuck in handle Gentlemen carried fans in those days and in one of the later figures of the german ger-man they now carry fans According to an old MSS in the Ashmolean museum Sir Edward Cole rode the circuit with a prodigious fan which had a long stick with which HE CORRECTED HIS DAUGHTERS Jot us hope that that will not be reintroduced reintro-duced The vellum fans painted by Watteau and tho lovely fans of Spain enriched with jewels jew-els are rather too expensive for favors for the german But one very rich entertainer gave away tortoise shell fans with jeweled sticks two years ago at Delmonicos Fans of silk eggshaped painted with birds were used for an Easter german Ribbons are however very much used in the german being called los rubans Six ribbons about a yard in length and of various vari-ous colors are attached to one end of a stick about twentyfour inches in length also a duplicate set of ribbons attached to another stick must bo in readiness Tne first couple perform a tour de valse and then separate The gentleman takes one set of ribbons and stops successively in front of the ladies whom he desires to select to take part in the figures Each of these ladies rises and takes hold of THE LOOSE END OF A RIBBON The first lady takes the other set of ribbons rib-bons bringing forward six gentlemen in i the same manner The first couple conduct the ladies and gentlemen toward each other and each gentleman dances with the lady holding the ribbon duplicate of his own The first gentleman dances with his partner part-ner Ribbons are used for a cotillon dinner with very good effect From the chandelier chande-lier in the centre of the dining room we read depended twenty scarfs of gros gram ribbon each three and a half yards long and nine inches wide heavily fringed and richly adorned at both ends with paintings paint-ings of flowers and foliage These scads were so arranged that an end of each came down to the place one of the ladies was to occupy at the table and care was taken in their selection to have colors bur monizinir with the ladys dress and complexion com-plexion These cotillon dinners have been A PRETTY FAHSION for two or three winters to enable four or five young hostesses to each give a dinner the whole four to meet with their guests at ono house for a small german after the dinner each hostess comparing her Hilt with that of her noighbor so that thore should be no confusion It is believed th atm this device was the invention of the into at-m parabje Mr McAllister to whom society owes a great deal The fashionable society so-ciety like the german must have a leader 4 some one will take trouble and think out these elaborate details Nowhere in Europe is so much pains taken about this sort of adornment as here Themenus of these cotillon dinners are often watercolor paintings worthy of preservation pres-ervation Sometimes a scene from one of Shakespeares plays sometimes a copy of soma famous French pictures in either case giving something delightfully artistic FOR A SUPPER AFTER 4 DANCE or during it the dishes are placed on the table and it is served en buffet but for a sit down supper served at little tables or exactly like a dinner except that there is no soup or fish Oysters on the halfshell and bouillon in cups represent these two courses sweetbreads and green peas cotel lettes a la financiere and some sort of game I in season such as reed birds in autumn t canvasback ducks venison and woodcock I salads of every description are served in order Ices and fruit follow Cheese is not in order A large centrepiece ot flowers is placed in the middle of the table Champagne iced is poured from the begin ning to the end and oldfashioned people put sherry and Madeira on in handsome decanters de-canters A slice of pate do foie gras with tomato salad is indispensable The use of flowers in America for these entertainments is simply bewildering A CLIMBING ROSE will seem to be going everywhere over an invIsible trellis delicate green vines will depend from the chandelier dropping roses Roses cover the entire table cloth or the flowers will be massed all of yellow or of white or red or pink Nothing could exceed the magnificence of the great baskets of chrysanthemums of white and yellow the roses the violets the carnations at a breakfast given to the Count de Paris at Delmonicos on October 20 and at the subsequent dinner given him by his brother officers of the army of the Potomac were his royal arms in white flowers the flour de lis of Joan of Arc on a blue ground all of flowers jaqueminot roses went up and down the table with the words Grand army of the Potomac in white flowers The orchid that most regal and expensive expen-sive of all flowers a single specimen often costing five dollars was used by a lady as an imitation fire the wood the flames and all made of flowers placed in A MOST ARTISTIC CHIMNEYPIECE Little Leghorn hats filled with them and hung on the arm with a ribbon are used as favors in the german and a basket of orchids or-chids for a dinner costs 100 Indeed the cost of the cut flowers used in New York in one winter for entertaining is said to be five millions of dollars Orchids have this advantage over other flowersthey have no scent and that in a mixed company and a hot room is an advantage as some people peo-ple cannot bear even the perfume of a rose Bags of plush gaily embroidered heavily trimmed with lace screens and all sorts of little charms for the watch chain smelling bottles and bangles are given in the german ger-man The owl is a favorite emblem His power of looking wise and being foolish fits him for fashionable society He now carries car-ries the day having always owned the night every kind of reticule and chatelaine chate-laine embroidered painted and shaded are given and MANDOLINS AND TAMBOURINES are very favorite favors Imitation rackets battledoor and shuttlecock shuttle-cock banjos fans in every shape and form watches in bracelets and to hang at the girdle in crystal all are utilized Among the ladies who do not wish to spend so much money on favors for the german and menus for the dinner it is a pretty fashion for them to make these things themselves In a country house it is a good way to get rid of a rainy week to buy the ribbons at the village shop paint them with monograms mono-grams and devices make pretty drawings and embroider the reticules and out of gold paper and tissue paper construct the grotesque gro-tesque caps and hats and turbans which come concealed in French bonbons Make wooden baskets of thin bits of wood or straw fill them with wild flowers and ferns draw your ornamentation from the forest A LARGE LUMP OF ICE WITH FLOWERS trained over it is a delightfully refreshing adornment for a hot ballroom In grand party decorations even one given by the Prince of Wales to the Czarina of Russia ten tons of ice were used as an ornamental rookery In smaller rooms the glacier can be cut out and its base hidden in a tub lights put behind in and flowers and green vines draped over it The effect is magical The flowers are kept fresh the white column looks always well and the coolness it diffuses is delicious delici-ous It mightby way of contrast the Dark Continent be a complimentary decoration for a supper to be given to Mr Stanley to ornament the ballroom with Artio bowlders around which should be hung the tropical lowers and vines of Africa M E W SHERWOOD |
