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Show TRAINING FOR THE WINTER. New York Belles Who Strain and Train to Keep Up. "We are most of us in training for the winter campaign," said a well-known belle the other day to a New York Journal reporter. "No one has any idea of the strain upon one's constitution when much dancing, late hours and afternoon receptions recep-tions and teas make up one's life for five or six months,'? she continued. "Generally "Gen-erally I rise about 10 o'clock and breakfast, break-fast, while my maid brushes my hair. Then 'at 1 I am off to a luncheon and only leave to attend three or four receptions. recep-tions. Home again at half-past 5 to dress for a dinner-party, and then to the opera and frequently to a ball after the opera. At 2 or 3 in the morning I am ready to go to bed, and this is the life I have led for the past two seasons. "Of course, it is very delightful for a debutante and she can dance all night and eat chicken-salad with champagne and the next day be as bright as ever, but sensible mothers do not permit their daughters such liberty during their first season. "What do I mean by training? Well, yon would call it training, I think, and every society girl has to go through the same regime if she wants to keep her complexion and health. Now, all the girls I know-are preparing for their first ball. They go to bed early, say at 9 or 10 o'clock, and sleep until 7. Then they are given a bowl of beef tea before arising, and after they are dressed they must take a walk, a ride or drive in the open air. Coarse oatmeal forms their chief dish for breakfast, and after that meal they can go to the dressmaker's, shopping or calling, but must lunch at exactly the same hour every day and wear a veil to protect their complexions from contact with the cold air. "A low-necked dres3 is worn for awhile every evening," continued the belle with a sigh, "to accustom the arms and neck to it, because you know a person wearing a decollete bodice for the first tune in a ball-room is apt to catch her death of cold, and then her arms get so pink instead of white. "Girls' who are going to make their debut have to practice walking in high-heeled high-heeled shoes, holding two or . three bouquets, across a room, and all that sort of thing. Some of them are naturally awkward, you know," she said, "and it's awfully hard to make them graceful, but I think most girls, especially those who have older sisters, fall naturally into attitudes and the fashionable walk, and don't have to be taught. "Our greatest trials come after a dinner din-ner of bouillon, bread and butter and roast beef. Our maids spend two hours or more polishing our arms and necks with glycerine and rose-water, and another an-other hour brushing our hair. - "And when we really commence our balls and parties all our enjoyment is Admiration. We cannot eat salads and bonbons and drink champagne late at night, or we'll spoil our complexions, and we have to subsist on bouillon and ices, and we cannot dance always with the person we want, because that would occasion remark ; and we cannot sit down very long at one time, because that would spoil the bouffet effect of our gowns, and about all we can do is to eat ices and flirt with every partner we have. - "It's perfectly delightful anyhow, with all its drawbacks," she said. "The flowers, flow-ers, the music, the dancing, the lovely dresses, and the compliments are perfectly per-fectly delightful, and I am awfully anxious anx-ious to attend my first ball. But I never could understand how the young men keep up so well. Why, do you know, after a ball, at 3 o'clock in the morning some of them gooff to the club for an hour or two and some of them don't go to bed at all." ' |