Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1902 — A PAINTED DINNER. [ARTICLE]

A PAINTED DINNER.

Very Pretty Affair Devised by an OrlgInal Woman. Apropos of dinners, a woman, noted for her originality and the courage of her convictions, gave what she called a painted dinner the other day. She dubbed it a painted dinner because the color scheme was so vivid and intense, like the hues of the painted lady butterfly.

The table center was Parisian—bizarre in the extreme—square of thick white silk crossed by wovenllnes of turquoise satin toward the middle, and broad bars of black splashed . with silken flower petals, mauve, red and tawny yellow. A great silver bowl, raised on a stand of finely carved ebony, held a mass of zinnias of every shade possible of that gay flower, toned by trails of maidenhair. Maidenhair was laid here and there upon the table. Candle shades, like the silk center, hailed from Paris. On each of these, in a framed medallion, was painted a dainty dancing lady, and each, when lighted, changed from an etching to a brightly colored vignette by some trick of the shade makers. The menus, too, were painted in trails of autumn leaves, and the fruit, piled in high silver dishes, was decorated with tinted Virginia creeper. Each Venetian glass fingerbowl held a leaf of scented verbena and one blossom of blood-red canna. The silk doilies were painted like the candle shades, while the bon bons, specially made, were packed in silver baskets, and repeated half the colors of the table. -