9. What Miss causes her mother sorrow? (Mis-conduct)
10. What Miss proves an uncertain correspondent? (Mis-direct)
11. What Miss should the traveler shun? (Mis-guide)
12. What Miss is unhappy? (Mis-fortune)
13. What Miss is distinguished as uncivil and ill-bred? (Mis-behave)
14. What Miss gives unreliable information? (Mis-call)
15. What Miss meets with ill-luck and delay? (Mis-adventure)
16. What Miss is untruthful? (Mis-represent)
VEGETABLE PARTY
Over the table was an Italian green-grocer's sign, and the smiling
attendants were dressed to represent Italian women. The table was loaded
with fruits and vegetables, all made of tissue paper. The stock included
pumpkins, squashes, cabbages, cauliflower, curly lettuce, beets,
carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, radishes, oranges, and grapes. The
vegetables sold for five or ten cents, according to size and contents,
for each contained a prize. The radishes and grapes were candies covered
with the proper shade of paper and tied in bunches.
There was enough mystery about the contents of these artificial
vegetables and fruits to make them sell. One person might open a
cucumber and find a child's handkerchief rolled within, but if a
neighbor bought one, hoping to secure a handkerchief, he would be quite
as likely to find a china doll. The proceeds of this sale were donated
to charity.
A slip of paper entitled "Vegetables in Disguise" was passed to each
guest, and twenty-five minutes allotted for puzzling out the answers.
The following is the list the paper contained:
A pronoun preceded and followed by a preposition. (Onion)
A painful projection. (Corn)
Hard to get out of. (Maize [maze])
What vegetables should see a great deal, and why?
(Potatoes. They have so many eyes)
A basement and a question. (Celery [cellar-why])
Every good Chinaman has my first. My second is to overload.
(Cucumber [queue-cumber])
A bivalve and a vegetable growth. (Oyster plant)
Normal, and a very small piece. (Parsnip)
A small waste. (Leek [leak])
A letter. (Pea [p])
A boy, a letter, and a part of the body? (Tomato [Tom-a-toe])
Yielding water, and connections? (Pumpkin)
To crush. (Squash)
A purple part of the year, and sick. (Lentil [Lent-ill])
A tour on your wheel, and years. (Spinach [spin-age])
Hot stuff. (Pepper)
An English dignity, and a platter. (Radish [R. A. dish])
A hen. (Egg plant)
Tramps. (Beets)
The supper, as one would expect at a vegetable party, consisted of
vegetarian dishes only, but it was surprising to find how attractive and
how palatable these were.
WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES
In planning for anniversaries there are many and unique ways in which
they may be carried out. Everything that accompanies the anniversary
being celebrated should be used. Always use a decided color and try to
carry out the color scheme in the refreshments, the decorations, and the
costumes. There are many suitable suggestions in the book from which to
choose, in the way of both decoration and entertainment, besides the
following.
FIRST ANNIVERSARY--COTTON WEDDING
The invitations for the cotton wedding may be written in ink on
well-starched cotton cloth. Cut the pieces to fit regular-sized
envelopes. You may request the guests to wear cotton costumes, if you
wish, to add to the effect. Decorate the rooms with cheese-cloth of
several colors gracefully festooned about the walls, and with the
Southern cotton-balls if you can get them. The married couple may stand
under a canopy made of wire covered with cotton wadding to represent
snow, and wear cotton costumes, and the wife may carry a bouquet of
cotton flowers. Artificial flowers made of cotton may be used, too, for
decoration. Cover the refreshment table with cheese-cloth, and have
place-cards written on prettily decorated pieces of starched muslin. You
could have a Spider Hunt for an appropriate entertainment. For this, as
you probably know, you provide balls of cotton twine, and wind the twine
all over the house. The guests have to untangle their respective balls,
and wind them up until they come to the end of the string, where a gift
is discovered. The gifts should be pretty conceits made of
cotton--shoe-bags or work bags of pretty cretonne for the women, and
picture frames of cretonne for the men, etc.
SECOND ANNIVERSARY--PAPER WEDDING
The second year is celebrated as a paper wedding. There are many ways a
house can be decorated with paper. Pretty colored paper shades can be
made for all the gas jets (or lamp chimneys), flower-pots can be trimmed
with fancy crepe paper, butterflies can be made from stiff colored
paper, doilies can be designed from fancy paper, and paper napkins can
be used in many ways. Whatever is used for refreshments paper napkins
can be placed on each dish under the food; tumblers can be wrapped
around with paper and tied with a dainty little ribbon. Plenty of paper
flowers can be used for decoration. The tablecloth may be of paper,
edged with paper lace, the centrepiece of paper roses, the candle-shades
composed of their petals, while the ices may be served in boxes held in
the hearts of paper roses. For entertainment, large mottoes containing
paper caps may be distributed. These should be put on, and with their
assumption a character impersonated by each wearer appropriate to the
headgear. The guesses are recorded in paper booklets and the person most
successful may receive a prize--a book or any paper trifle.
FOURTH ANNIVERSARY--LEATHER WEDDING
The fourth year is observed as a leather wedding. Invitations sent out
for this anniversary can have a small piece of leather enclosed in
envelope. A unique idea is to have a leather saddle hung in the centre
of the room, with a leather whip and riding gloves. As souvenirs small
pieces of leather with the date of the wedding, also the date of the
anniversary, stamped or written upon them, and tied with white baby
ribbon, may be distributed. Small leather calendars can be made, also
heart-shaped leather pen-wipers with small paintings on them.
Appropriate presents for the married couple would be leather purses,
hand-bags, shoes, satchels, pocketbooks, lunch boxes, traveling cases,
etc., and do not forget a leather smoking case for the host.
A burnt-leather box or basket filled with yellow flowers or growing
ferns would not be ill-adapted for a centrepiece for the refreshment
table, and leatherette receptacles, if made in sections tied together
with ribbons matching the flowers, would be pretty for the bonbons,
cakes and salted nuts.
The place-cards may be of leather with the names in heavy gilt
lettering.
A game or contest is usually enjoyed, and the award of a trifling prize
to the victor makes a pleasant climax to the evening's fun. In this
case the article should, of course, be of leather.
FIFTH ANNIVERSARY--WOODEN WEDDING
A description is given of an actual wooden wedding anniversary
celebrated recently. The invitations were printed on paper that looked
like wood. In fact it looked so much like it that it could hardly be
told from wood. For decorations as much real wood was utilized as
possible. In one large archway were hung twelve wooden plates, each with
a painting on, and joined with white ribbon. Twelve young ladies served
on the reception committee and the twelve plates were given them as
souvenirs before they departed. In another archway there was a toothpick
curtain which attracted much attention. This was made on silk cord with
the toothpicks tied about two inches apart, crossways, with a small loop
in the cord. They were draped back and tied with a bunch of silk cord.
In the small doorways were clothes-pin curtains. A large wire bell,
covered with shavings and goldenrod, hung from a canopy of the same,
under which the bride and groom stood to receive their guests.
A large wooden flower-stand was placed in the reception hall and it was
banked with goldenrod and cut flowers, with a large palm on top shelf.
Several wooden bowls and baskets of goldenrod and cut flowers were
scattered about the house. On the mantels, stands, table, sideboard, and
piano, were large palms and goldenrod. All the chairs had been moved out
of the house, except in the dining-room, where they were arranged around
the wall. In the centre of the room was the polished table, with neat
doilies, and for a centrepiece was a large yellow cake with the figure
"5" in wood. This cake stood on a high cake-stand and around the edge of
the stand were a row of clothes-pins, the kind with a spring, and a row
of toothpicks sticking all around the edge of the cake. On two corners
of the table were little wooden shoes filled with cut flowers, and on
the two diagonally opposite corners were large apples stuck full of
toothpicks. The guests were seated in the dining-room for refreshments
and as soon as it was filled, the reception committee closed it with a
large rope of goldenrod across the doorway. For refreshments ice cream
and cake were served on wooden plates with wooden spoons. The ice cream
was made to look like wood, the caterer using a mixture of vanilla,
chocolate, bisque and lemon flavors. The different kinds of cake were
also made to look like different kinds of wood, such as walnut, oak,
cherry, and so forth. The souvenirs were large wooden butter moulds on
which were printed the year of marriage and the year of celebration. An
orchestra of eight pieces played all through the evening, under a canopy
of white cloth on the porch, the porch being carpeted and curtained like
a room.
SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY--WOOLEN WEDDING
The woolen wedding comes with the seventh anniversary. The material is
not effective, but the invitations may be worked in crewels on
perforated Bristol-board.
The "cobweb party" might be revived, using colored yarns instead of
cords, and placing a "fortune" as well as a favor at the end of each.
Some unfortunate swain might, perhaps, find a huge worsted mitten,
guided in his choice of yarn by one in the secret to insure its
selection by a man.
On the refreshment table a large wedding-cake crowned by a "Bo-peep"
doll with her flock of toy sheep would suggest the "woolly" idea.
TENTH ANNIVERSARY--TIN WEDDING
These wedding invitations can be written or printed, and sent out ten
days beforehand, either enclosing a piece of tin, or wrapped in tin
foil.
The bride and groom should receive their guests, the bride carrying her
bouquet in a tin funnel. The groom can wear a small tin horn in his
buttonhole with a small bouquet. The author intends to celebrate her tin
wedding this fall, and this is what she intends to have.
For refreshments, will serve coffee in tin cups, with tin spoons, and
dainty sandwiches on tin plates; will pass water in a tin pail, using a
tin dipper. All refreshments will be passed in tin pans, the waiters
will use tin coffee pots to refill the coffee cups. For a centrepiece
for the table, will use a large tin cake pan, with an opening in the
centre, in which a small fish horn can be placed, the cake pan and fish
horn both being filled with flowers. Shall decorate the rooms with tin
as far as possible. In one archway shall use tin plates tied together
with ribbon, a small hole being punched in the plates for the purpose.
This will form a curtain for one archway. In another archway shall use
tin cups for the same purpose. Tin candlesticks can be used, if one is
fortunate enough to have them. Wire toasters tied with ribbon can be
hung on the walls to hold photographs. Small tin spoons tied with
ribbons can be given as souvenirs, being passed around by the waiters,
in a tin dust pan.
Potted plants can be set in tin pails, and tin cans can be used for
bouquets. A tin wash basin can be passed for a finger bowl. Tin foil can
also be used with which to decorate.
TWELFTH ANNIVERSARY--LINEN WEDDING
The invitations are written on squares of linen in indelible ink, and
the name cards are also of linen. Linen is used freely about the rooms,
linen lace working into decorative schemes most effectively. The flax
flower is, of course, conspicuous whenever it can be obtained. The
artificial flower may be used in many places, as well as the natural
blossoms. The centrepiece, doilies, etc., used on the table should be
embroidered with flax flowers in natural colors.
While the guests are at supper an old-fashioned spinning wheel should be
brought into the parlors in readiness for a spinning contest, which may
be conducted as described in the entertainment, "A Spinning Party."
FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY--CRYSTAL WEDDING
The invitations may be decorated with drawings of small hand-mirrors,
tumblers, etc., and for the ornamentation of the house every conceivable
kind of glass vessel and mirror may be used. In the table decorations
cut or pressed glass should be prominent. In the centre of the table a
small mirror might be placed, with a large glass bowl upon it filled
with flowers. Red carnations with red candle-shades make a very
effective color scheme for the crystal background. Little cakes with red
icing, red bonbons, and red place cards may also be used. The
refreshments should be served on glass dishes, the waiters using glass
trays if possible. Tiny glass bottles each containing a red carnation
and a sprig of smilax make very appropriate souvenirs. Should the bride
desire an appropriate gown for the occasion, it may be trimmed with
quantities of glass beads or the glass drops from a chandelier. Those
who assist in receiving might also be similarly garbed.
TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY--CHINA WEDDING
A good idea for a china wedding would be to have a course dinner and
display all one's china. Use china wherever it can be used instead of
silver, glass, or other dishes. Have plants and flowers displayed in
china. A unique idea would be to give each guest a tiny china cup and
saucer as a souvenir.
Any of the parlor entertainments or contests described in this volume
may be used to pass the time pleasantly either before or after the
dinner.
TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY--SILVER WEDDING
The invitations to a silver wedding should be headed by the two eventful
dates printed in silver.
For the decorations, use any flowers which may be in season, surrounding
the mirrors and pictures as far as possible with a framework of green
spangled with silver. Cover all the lamps and gas shades with white
crepe paper flecked here and there with silver, and suspend balls
covered with silver paper from the chandeliers.
Let the daughters in the family, and the granddaughters if there be any,
wear gowns of simplest white, with draperies of silver tinsel. If there
happen to be any grandchildren it would be well to have them distribute
the favors, which may be bouquets of flowers tied with white ribbons.
The refreshments should be served shortly after the guests arrive. A
suitable way to announce that supper is served will be to have the
wedding march played, when the bride and groom of the evening may be
requested to lead the way to the dining-room.
The supper-table should be lighted with white candles in silver
candelabra, and the snowy tablecloth be crossed diagonally with white
satin ribbon edged with silver. Upon a pretty centrepiece of
silver-spangled tulle may be placed a silver or glass bowl containing
twenty-five white roses. Dishes of white cakes and candies, and
old-fashioned mottoes covered with silver paper may be scattered
plentifully about the table. The large cake should be decorated in white
and silver, and placed upon a silver dish in front of the bride of
twenty-five years ago, who alone should be permitted to cut it.
There is no limit to the presents which may be sent in honor of a silver
wedding, but no guest need be deterred from appearing because of her
inability to send a present; her good wishes will please the host and
hostess quite as well as an elaborate gift.
Pretty souvenirs of a silver wedding are bookmarks of white satin
ribbon, upon each one of which is printed in silver the name of the
guest and the dates of the anniversary he or she has been helping to
celebrate.
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY--GOLDEN WEDDING
Invitations to a golden wedding should be written or printed on golden
hued cards. Let the bride wear a dress of golden hue, or, if she
dislikes such bright colors, let her use plenty of yellow flowers in her
hair and on her dress. The groom should also wear yellow flowers. Two
armchairs decorated with straw might be used for the seats of honor.
Have the home decorated with goldenrod if in season, if not, any yellow
flower can be used; if the season for sunflowers, they are very pretty
for decoration. Let those who help serve wear yellow dresses or plenty
of yellow flowers. A large yellow cake could be used for a centrepiece,
banked with yellow flowers; use brass candlesticks with yellow candles.
Plenty of flowers or yellow paper should be used for the gas jets, lamp
shades and picture frames. Refreshments might consist of yellow cake,
lemonade, and yellow candy. Pretty souvenirs would be a yellow carnation
for each guest.
WEDDING OF THE OPERAS
Each guest was given a double card or booklet with pencil attached, the
cover representing a miniature sheet of music. Upon one page was a list
of numbered questions, the answers to be written upon the opposite page,
suggested by selections from well-known operas and operettas played upon
the piano or other instrument. The names of the operas from which the
selections were taken answered the questions.
The following were the questions:
1. Who were the bride and groom?
2. What was the bride called--from the circumstances of her wedding?
3. At what sort of party did they meet?
4. He went as a minstrel. What was he called?
5. She went as an Austrian peasant. What was she called?
6. At the wedding what Spanish girl was maid of honor?
7. What noted Swiss was best man?
8. What two ladies (friends of Donizetti's) were bridesmaids?
9. What four Germans were the ushers?
10. What mythological personage presided over the music?
11. Who sang at the ceremony?
12. What noted person from Japan was present?
13. What noted bells were rung in honor of the wedding?
14. What ship did they take for their wedding trip?
15. When on the voyage who captured them?
16. What virtue sustained them in captivity?
17. What gentleman of dark complexion rescued them?
18. What historical people entertained them in France?
19. In Northeast Italy what grand affair did they attend?
20. Who showed them the sights of Venice?
And the music gave answer, as follows:
1. Romeo and Juliet.
2. The Runaway Girl.
3. Masked Ball.
4. Trovatore.
5. The Bohemian Girl.
6. Carmen.
7. William Tell.
8. Lucia di Lammermoor and Linda di Chamouni.
9. Lohengrin, Faust, Tannhäuser and Siegfried.
10. Orpheus.
11. The Meistersinger.
12. The Mikado.
13. The Chimes of Normandy.
14. H. M. S. Pinafore.
15. The Pirates of Penzance.
16. Patience.
17. Othello.
18. The Huguenots.
19. The Carnival of Venice.
20. The Gondoliers.
WHICH IS YOUR AGE
What is the best age for a girl or boy? (Espionage)
To what age will people arrive if they live long enough? (Dotage)
To what age do most women look forward with anxiety? (Marriage)
What age has the soldier often to find? (Courage)
What age is required on the high seas? (Tonnage)
What age are we forbidden to worship? (Image)
What age is not less or more? (Average)
What is the age people are stuck on? (Mucilage)
What age is both profane and destructive? (Damage)
At what age are vessels to ride safe? (Anchorage)
What age is necessary to the clergyman? (Parsonage)
What age is one of communication? (Postage)
What age is most important to travelers by rail? (Mileage)
What is the age now popular for charity? (Coinage)
What age is shared by the doctor and the thief? (Pillage)
What age do we all wish for? (Homage)
What age is slavery? (Hostage)
What age is most enjoyed at the morning meal? (Beverage)
What is the most indigestible age? (Sausage)
WHICH IS YOUR AUNT (ANT)
1. What is the oldest ant? (Adam-ant)
2. What ant hires his home? (Tenant)
3. What ant is joyful? (Jubilant)
4. What ant is learned? (Savant)
5. What ant is well-informed? (Conversant)
6. What ant is trustworthy? (Confidant)
7. What ant is proud? (Arrogant)
8. What ant sees things? (Observant)
9. What ant is angry? (Indignant)
10. What ant tells things? (Informant)
11. What ant is successful? (Triumphant)
12. What ant is an officer? (Commandant)
13. What ant is a beggar? (Mendicant)
14. What ant is obstinate? (Defiant)
15. What ant is youngest? (Infant)
16. What is the ruling ant? (Dominant)
17. What is the wandering ant? (Errant)
18. What ant lives in a house? (Occupant)
19. What ant points out things? (Significant)
20. What ant is prayerful? (Supplicant)
WHICH IS YOUR CITY
1. What city is for few people? (Scarcity)
2. For happy people? (Felicity)
3. For hypocrites? (Duplicity)
4. For chauffeurs? (Velocity)
5. For truthful people? (Veracity)
6. For athletes? (Elasticity)
7. For greedy people? (Voracity)
8. For wild beasts? (Ferocity)
9. For home lovers? (Domesticity)
10. For actors? (Publicity)
11. For reporters? (Audacity)
12. For wise people? (Sagacity)
13. For hungry people? (Capacity)
14. For telegraph operators? (Electricity)
15. For crowds? (Multiplicity)
16. For nations? (Reciprocity)
17. For odd people? (Eccentricity)
18. For beggars? (Mendicity)
19. For unhappy people? (Infelicity)
20. For office seekers? (Pertinacity)
The names of cities and their nicknames may also be used, thus: Boston,
"The Hub"; Philadelphia, "The City of Homes"; Detroit, "City of the
Straits"; Cincinnati, "Queen City of the West"; Chicago, "Windy City,"
or "Garden City"; Buffalo, "Queen City"; Cleveland, "Forest City";
Pittsburg, "Smoky City"; Washington, "City of Magnificent Distances";
Milwaukee, "Cream City"; New York, "Gotham"; Minneapolis, "Falls City";
St. Louis, "Mound City"; San Francisco, "Golden Gate"; New Orleans,
"Crescent City."
WHITE RIBBON SOCIABLE
Invitations should be similar to the following:
_Yourself and friends are cordially invited to attend a
White Ribbon Sociable
given by the Y. W. C. T. U. at the home of the
President, Miss Blank,
Monday evening, September 10, 19--._
Have a small white ribbon bow tied on the corner of the card. Of course
all members of the society should wear their white ribbons. All who
serve on the reception committee should wear a large white ribbon
rosette. Also have a white ribbon quartet for the musical part of the
program, and have each one wear a large white ribbon bow on the left
breast. Have plenty of white flowers for decoration, also use anything
white that can be used in any way to help decorate. Have a large bowl or
white dish in centre of dining-table with small white baby ribbons
hanging over the edge, one for each guest you expect. Tie to the end of
each ribbon a small slip of paper bearing instructions as to what each
one is to do. Each guest is to pull out a slip, see what he is to do,
and then proceed to do it at once. Cover the top of the dish neatly with
white tissue paper. Wafers can be served tied with narrow white ribbon,
also coffee or cocoa, or if in summer serve lemonade.
The following suggestions may be used for the slips of paper:
1. Act in pantomime a doctor's visit.
2. Make a dunce cap and put on head of dignified person.
3. Deliver an oration on George Washington.
4. Sing "Mary had a little lamb," in operatic style.
5. Draw a correct picture of a cow.
6. Tell a funny story.
7. Sing a lullaby to a sofa cushion.
8. Sing a comic song.
9. Compose a rhyme with four lines.
10. Tell a pathetic story.
11. Make a shadow picture of a man's head on the wall with the hands.
12. Show how a small boy cries when a hornet stings him.
13. Sneeze in five different ways.
14. Shake hands with ten different persons in ten different styles.
15. Recite "The boy stood on the burning deck," in dramatic style.
16. Laugh ten varieties of laugh.
17. Imitate the sounds made by two cats fighting.
18. Show how a man acts when he is lost in Boston.
19. Smile ten different smiles.
20. Tip your hat in ten different ways to ten different people.
21. Show how a dude walks.
22. Auction off an overcoat.
23. Try to sell a book as if you were a book agent.