1890 Tea Party by Cece

I went to a tea party yesterday. It was the first tea party I have ever been to. It was at 14 West 23rd Street at Teddy and Edith Wharton’s house. When I walked in, the first thing I saw was Edith standing in the front of the door greeting people. When I met her I did a curtsy and moved along. When I got into their beautiful house I saw J.P.Morgan and his  pockets were stuffed with money. So the first thing I did was go and introduce myself. He was a nice man but all he wanted to do was talk about money.

There was lots of food and drinks. I helped myself to a glass of lemonade and a cookie. Later I went back to the food and got a cucumber sandwich. I did not want to try it, but I did because it is polite to try stuff, I did not like it, but others did.

Close to the end of the tea party Edith Wharton announced that she had an entertainer. The entertainer was Jacob Riis. He showed us pictures of what life was like downtown and how life was so hard. Jacob showed us a picture of a girl named Katy the picture was called “I scrub,” because that’s all she did. After the entertainment was over we had a little more chatting time and then the tea party was over.

1890 Tea Party by Macy

On the 15th of November the 4th graders were invited to a tea party on the 16th of November, 1890. Each of the kids dressed up as a 1890 kid. I dressed up as an 11 year old kid with a big baggy skirt, a plain white shirt with a nice vest on top.

Then the tea party started, we got to eat, try new things and have some tea. After that we had a meeting with Jacob Riis about his job as photographer. He explained how the new invention of the flash (for his camera) helped him so much see more of the world. Mr. Riis showed us pictures he took of poor people and kids and and he talked about how hard their life was comparing to ours. One kid, (girl) named Katie had work all day and her family can’t afford for her to go to school. I can’t imagine if I had to work all day and not go to school.

1890 Tea Party by Libi

Yesterday we went to a tea party hosted by Edith and Teddy Wharton. We tasted tons of different yet good food. We met Jacob Riis, Andrew Carnegie, and J.P Morgan. We talked to them about their jobs and lives as wealthy men. We found out that Carnegie sold his company to Morgan for a lot of money, and Carnegie decided to become a major philanthropist and give back to the world what it gave him. MONEY!!!!  For the entertainment, Mrs. Wharton asked Mr. Riis to share his work, which he did. In his presentation, Mr Riis showed us the less wealthy people of downtown New York. He showed us pictures that he took with the flash camera that went into his book, How the Other Half Lives. These pictures made me surprised because I didn’t know there were people in downtown NY. It really made me sad seeing how people who are not wealthy live like animals that are abandoned on the street because it surprised me that people treat them like that just because they are immigrants. I feel odd being in a party with food that we never could finish while looking at pictures of people who if they could get one cookie they would be the happiest people in the world.