The expenses of balls such as Assemblies, are borne by the patronesses collectively, but other types of dances are paid for by subscribers who are invited to “take tickets”—­as will be explained.

How Subscription Dances Are Organized

Whether in city, town or village, the organization is the same:  A small group of important ladies decide that it would be agreeable to have two or three balls—­or maybe only one—­a season.  This original group then suggests additional names until they have all agreed upon a list sufficient in size to form a nucleus.  These then are invited to join, and all of them at another meeting decide on the final size of the list and whom it is to include.  The list may be a hundred, or it may stay at the original group of a half dozen or so.  Let us for example say the complete list is fifty.  Fifty ladies, therefore, the most prominent possible, are the patronesses or managers, or whatever they choose to call themselves.  They also elect a chairman, a vice-chairman, a secretary, and a treasurer.  They then elect seven or eight others who are to constitute the managing committee.  The other thirty-eight or forty are merely “members” who will pay their dues and have the right to a certain number of tickets for each of the balls.  These tickets, by the way, are never actually sent by the members themselves, who merely submit the names of the guests they have chosen to the committee on invitations.  This is the only practical way to avoid duplication.  Otherwise, let us say that Mrs. Oldname, Mrs. Worldly, Mrs. Norman and Mrs. Gilding each send their two tickets to the young Smartlingtons, which would mean that the Smartlingtons would have to return three, and those three invitations would start off on a second journey perhaps to be returned again.

On the other hand, if each patroness sends in a list, the top names which have not yet been entered in the “invitation book” are automatically selected, and the committee notify her to whom her invitations went.

There is also another very important reason for the sending in of every name to the committee:  exclusiveness.  Otherwise the balls would all too easily deteriorate into the character of public ones.  Every name must be approved by the committee on invitations, who always hold a special meeting for the purpose, so that no matter how willing a certain careless member would be to include Mr. and Mrs. Unsuitable, she is powerless to send them tickets if they are not approved of.

As a matter of fact there is rarely any question of withholding invitations, since a serious objection would have to be sustained against one to warrant such an action on the part of the committee.

Number of Invitations Issued