Toward the end of the ice-cream course the hostess asked the guests to announce their telephone numbers, in turn. Whereupon, each person was requested to rise from the table and act out his number. This was comparatively simple and made everyone quite hilarious.
When it came the turn of the hostess, she said that her number was Springit 42. The two (2), she said, were Elizabeth and John, and this was the time she had chosen to spring the announcement of their engagement.
Another way in which the announcement could be made is to prepare telephone messages of the news and tie them to the ends of blue ribbons hanging from the tongue of the bell. The hostess may announce that the "bell tolled" when the guests are allowed to open and read their messages.
AN APPLE SHOWER
A girl who was very fond of apples in every form, so much so that all her friends knew about it, was given a clever shower after she became engaged.
The invitations were cut in apple shape and tinted a little with red and green water colors. The following verses voiced the plan of the party and notified the guests:
Invitation to a Shower
Apples, apples everywhere
Will doubtless make up half the fare
On Elsie's future menu pad,
As they are Elsie's greatest fad.
So if you'd keep that fact in mind
In shower presents—'twould be kind;
Send it to me the day before
And come on Saturday at four.
January the twentieth
At Mary's house.
The first amusement of the afternoon was an apple-guessing contest, the names of different varieties of apples to be guessed from literal definitions, thus: The Royal Apple—. King. After that there was an apple-peeling contest in Hallowe'en fashion and each girl threw the peeling over her left shoulder to discover the initial of her future husband.