More Austrian Etiquette Expectations

The dinner given to the President of the French Republic at the Austrian Embassy gave sanction to a number of new by-laws in Presidential etiquette. It was the first time that such a dinner had been offered and accepted, and no one knew to whom it was to be announced– whether to M. Carnot or to the Ambassadress. 
Public domain image of French President Sadi Carnot 

 PRESIDENT CARNOT AT DINNER

QUESTIONS OF ETIQUETTE FIND SOLUTION

PARIS, Jan. 28.—The dinner given to the President of the French Republic at the Austrian Embassy gave sanction to a number of new by-laws in Presidential etiquette. It was the first time that such a dinner had been offered and accepted, and no one knew to whom it was to be announced– whether to M. Carnot or to the Ambassadress. The difficulty was managed by the simple opening of the dining room doors, which ceremony told Count Hoyos that the time had come to beg the President to offer his arm to the Ambassadress. This settled comfortably a knotty point in one second, and there was not the least apprehension concerning the place of the President at the table. It was amiably arranged by the position taken by the Austrian Ambassador directly opposite the President, as he entered the dining room with Mme. Carnot after the President.

The dress of the lady President was made of fine black chantilly over white satin. The front of the same was drapod in black tulle, covered with beads and lozenges of dark creon glass, looking like so many emeralds. The same ornamentation covered the corsage. In her hair she wore a diamond crescent, perched on a bouquet of rose geranium. The Countess Hoyos wore white satin with point lace overdress, looped with ostrich plumes and diamond bow knots. A pearl and diamond coronet was placed in her hair. The Countess Zich, wife of the Counselor to the Austrian Embassy, and one of the prettiest women in Paris, wore an Empire dress of white satin trimmed with silver lace and diamonds. The latter studded the under-the-arm belt and made an otherwise simple costume look particularly resplendent. – The New York Times, 1888

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