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' ■ -% nlEBUTANTE-WiSE, the present social season has been for Philadelphia one of the most brilliant in many years. Twenty-four buds in all have made their debut in society, and as the cro^n ing effort of the season the ball recently given by Mr. and Mrs. A -fred Craven Harrison in honor of their daughter, Miss Kate Sheldon Harrison, has been acknowledged by the press of this cit andebutante cotillion givenNew York to be the most magnificenteither in the Quaker City or old Gotham for seasons out of memory.The only other affair that crowds the Harrison cotillon for first honors isthe Anthony J. Drexel dinner-dance in Horticultural Hall on last Tuesdaynigfht. It b a farewell affair, as Mr. and Mrs. Drexel will sail for Eu~rope early in February to cruise in foreign waters for several months. Thisdinner-dance was only for two hundred guests, while the Harrisonsnearer a thousand, but the average cost per guest at the former functionthe expense of the affair would not be underhad Was considerably greater, as$15,000, possibly more.Of spending fortunes rapidly there are just three or four was, ut eon.-,.. ....... THE IMMENSE SUM PAID FOR THE COMING-OUT OF A FEW MORE THAN A SCOREOF QUAKER CITY GIRLS WHO ENTER SOCIETY. ^ the received on an eauality with the family, and too aristocratic by birth to bea cotillion ball to which a thousand guests are expec e -~p , discarded, these family barnacles are utilized in a variety of ways by beingitems named below are not excessive: assigned to the supervision of certain details of the approaching presentationy Rent of hall for dance..................*.......... reception. It is this poor relation who usually goes over the family visitingDecorations............................'........... pjJJJ list, corrects It up to date, and attends to the engraving and distribution 01Supper ................................... 1000 the invitations. * * *Gowns for mother and daughter..................... 500 por a fashionable affair, as many as a thousand invitations are frequentlyInvitations, carriages and all other incidentals........ uOO sent ^ ^ number who respond is regulated by the number of engagements. $10,100 and the condition of the weather, but it seldom exceeds three-fourths of the°a ......... * * * ‘ whole list. Men are not so numerous at^debutante receptions. ertainsbringing Tu ^ Tnd; I than notfor decorative purposes, until the debutante often stands literally surrounded bv a wall of flowers during the presentationflowersBeautiesfill a padded storage van. American and $1000 is not infrequently spent on the single itemments and incidentals will often equal this amount. ~nvnnnuivp debutante teas still cost a pretty sum, andRefresh-AlthoughIt is notman even among the rich set, who can afford to go beyond this stageo*t»rrinn of the fashionable world to his daughter.* * ♦derivedTno8ef nowevci, ^ — w # «.from a full season, regard the first reception merely as the initiative to moreelaborate affairs.$3000 for the season’s theatre parties is onethingster.boxesthatIvI*\I*VIteasiest method of unloading a few thousand dollars off-hand is to “bring out your daughter when she has reached the debutante age, and to do it inthe fashion of the smart set of society.When you speak of society in Philadelphia, you are speaking, par excellence of the most exclusive and formal social coterie of any city in thebroad United States. Paraphrasing the Mohammedan dogma, there is no society but Philadelphia society; and this being the case, it is naturally expect-‘ ;ha, Philadelphia’s debutantes, as the representatives of the younger social generation, should capture the honors for the dash,splendor and costlinessof their debuts. * * *Society is an organization governed by a tacitly-understood code of bylaws To bring out a youfig girl according to the letter and spirit of these hv laws costs a small fortune, even granting that you limit her to the minimum showing recognized by society; but if you are anxious to bring her forward'prominently in aristocratic circles and show her up as one of the reigning beUe, of the season, you may spend as high as $.,OOTO on her during the three months in which she Is making her debut. A debutante is not created m a day After the first reception or tea. as the case may be, where she isformally presented.-follows a season of luncheons, theatre parties dances, receptions and germans. Five thousand dollars is accounted a trifling expend!-cepticns una g . . t t while $50,000 is an unusual but not anture for the season of a debutante, w nue lt;pou,vimpossible sum; $10,000 is perhaps a fair average for the amount lavished on entertainments during the coming-out season of a young society girl.-'*■ — * * *Just how this sum could be reached is demonstrated by the following figures. eo ruinFirst reception............ uTheatre parties and suppers. „..................... ‘vwLuncheons and dinners............................ ............... .......... ooooGowns for mother and daughter.....................Final cotillion ball.....................................tmm miimiimi rnm ■ • ■« ....$25,000Total .................................... * ’Tannes are the most expensive entertainments that can be given, and acotillion is looked upon as “the” thing. The favors alone at the Harrison cotillion cost $2500fthey consisted of a large variety of Parisian trinkets in sterling silver, all mounted in rich floral designs. The cost of the entire affair is not known, but It is positively asserted that it could not have been less than $10,000, and the chances are it came to a thousand or two ove*. FortMXik .m ' Ji ’ #. '.,ment houses; the bouquets and flowers used in the decoration of receptionroomss would keep every cot in every city hospital supplied with fresh flowersdaily; the price of the food thrown away or not consumed at luncheons andsuppers would sustain the almshouse table; and the value of the favors given at the cotillions would be sufficient to buy a Christmas gift for every childclothe his sentiments proper in a bouquet rather than attend in ™e.greater the number of invitations sent out the more active will be the* season of the debutante, and as she is invariably accompanied even where b^ h mother both at the dances arid receptions she gives and those she attends.in the slums.the amount of costuming necessitated is considerable. In the score, or two of receptions that mother and daughter must afterward respond to neither Vearsenough are invited to fill four boxes. Of course, the entire party is afterward taken in carriages to a fashionable hotel, where ^ a sumptuous dinner Is sterved. A very few theatre parties on this scale, it is unnecessary to state,will cause an appreciable diminution of the $3000.Sfii* 0 * *But this is not all, for it is a matter of obligation with the mother of* * *Debutantes are presented during December and the fore part of January. Until that time the fashionables have not as yet returned from their out-of-town places and the social season is not in full swing. Months priorto the actual appearance of the debutante active preparations are going for-Mother and daughter spend day9ward in anticipation of the coming e\ ent. and weeks of anxious planning. The visiting list is revised; the modistesthe same costume more than twice, and it is looked upon as better form tohave a new gown for every affair.The color for debutantes will probably always remain white the dress tobe cut slightly decollete. A wide margin is permissible for ^ric^ but *nk. taffeta or lace are recognized as the proper thing. The most exquisite ami costly gowns are those of lace, ranging from $5 to $50 a yard or even more,and of the laces, Valenciennes is the most beautiful ami by far the most ex-the debutante to give one or two luncheons in the course cf the season; andif the father can afford it, he give's the debutante a dance in January orFebruary To compete with this round of pleasuring, the supply of costumes has been sorely taxed and mother and daughter are constantly get- „ ting their wardrobes replenished. A fair average outlay for gowns for mother and daughter is $5000 during the debutante season. v‘ ‘ it!With careful management and economy, $10,(»00 can he made to go aroPHILADELPHIALEADSTHECOUNTRYcomes to social eventslong way in launching a debutante into the social element, -and it can bedone verv respectably for this amount. That is, she can be given a presentation reception, a theatre party, a luncheon and a small cotillion, and havea variety of very pretty gowns thrown in. For $25,000 a more elaboratelt;Ooprogram can be carried out; the decorations will be more profuse, the suppers more pretentious, and a greater number of entertainments offered.said to have been spent on Mi£s Kate Sheldon Har-and mantuamakers pay their jespects; the floral decorator bows; the caterermakes his call; and, some morning when the paternal is sunk in blissful reverie* over a rise in stocks, he is touched—on the shoulder-for coin of a bright yellow shade, and awakens with a start to find that Gladys no longer clres whether all Gaul is divided into three parts or if the French primer as-pensive. A single costumeof this fabric can cost as high as a thousand dol-The entire amount rison this season, including the cotillion hall and all other functions inci-lars.dent to a debutante, wi)i fully amount to $30,000, if not more.« * *cribes the ownership of the table to the sister of the uncle’s nephew.Gla--rx q . * arp usually given at home, although permanentDebutante receptions aie usuany g 4.v,0«_suburban residents generally arrange with hotel managers for the use of their suburoan residentsgener , receiving parties have been ta-tca and reception rooms. This season large receiving f . . . . . .Tlie “Cigarette Face»»scientist hasbooed and the debutante is presented by the mother aloneinstead of beingstudied Hedys is no longer a child.* * *helped to receive by a host of friends* * *A Birmingham and analyzed the faces of smokers, divides them into three principal classes:(1) The pipe face; (2) the cigar face; (3)stem. These are crossed by finer lines, caused by the pressure of the lips to retain the stem in position. You may see these lines In the face of Frince Bismarck, who is rarely without his pipe.If a girl graduates from her seminary or pri-The debutante age is 18. vate academy before that time, she usually employs the interim, previous tothe date of coming out, in perfecting herself in the graces of deportment. Hermusical education, if she possesses any talent, has naturally already been attended to- if she has not been able to outgrow entirely the awkwardness ofthe schoolgirl period, she is given a course of training in conjunction with her dancing lessons; any impediment in her speech is corrected by a course in elocution and the instruction may go so far as to include the formal be-There are women in this city, who, withThe most conspicuous feature of a debutante tea or reception as distin-The most cjnsp 0 3 ,, ,g the abundance of flowers. In ad-guishing it from other similar functions, is . . . .While the cigar is of softer material,the cigarette face.The- most common form is the pipe it is larger und thicker, and, as it is usu-havior of the reception hall, blue blood circulating through their veins, but unfortunately classed amongthe reduced gentlefolks, manage to make a good livelihood by teachingwhist, euchre, polite converse and the allied arts to the. scions of society. Inthis connection the “poor relative” often figures conspipuously; too poor to bedition to the festoons of smilax and the banks o v o e , debutanteand orchids which the floral decorator has arranged e ore a ’ „receives dozens of exquisite bouquets. No debutante cou!Id p ^ .flowers lavished upon her by admiring friends, an e _receive as many as seventy-five different floral offerings. The average number of bouquets received by debutantes is not far f*m fifty. A bouquets nowadays are not as elaborate as those of 1 e *s s0 . , ‘\ $100 bouquet ten years ago was quite as frequent as a ° lu * •Many of the bunches of flowers sent are as large in f ^mference as th. bead of a barrel, and with the exception of a very few bunches all are u*dface. The corstant use of the pipe, asmost smokers use that article,, has its effect upon the face, because it is habitually carried in the same position Every lover of the pipe, although he may not be aware of the fact, has a favorite wayally held in the same position in the mouth, the same unnatural curvature cf the lips and the accompanying fine lines and wrinkles are the result. Mr. Rocke-American millionaire, is aof holding his pipe between his teethand lips.After long continuation of the habit, small circular wrinkles form parallel tocurvature of the lips around thefeller, the . ...great cigar smoker The cigarette face is very common, and Is familFar to most people. There is always a nervous expression hovering c*n and the nostrils are generally ex-theit, Hpanded.1-J*- r*
Newspaper Details
Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Sun, Jan 30, 1898
Page 25
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
DC, USA 11 May 2022
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