Pretty Polly's Pi Party —An article from "The Ladies' Home Journal", 1891.

Pi —noun.  A term used by printers when types are confusedly thrown together.  (Definition from Walker and Webster Combined In A Dictionary of the English Language​, 1873.)

Painting by James Tissot

From The Ladies' Home Journal, October, 1891, p. 8:

PRETTY POLLY'S "PI" PARTY
By Jean M. Turner
            Pretty Mistress Polly enjoyed a reputation for delightfully original evenings, but I think her last idea was best of all.  In an upper corner of her invitations appeared a cleverly-drawn pie, and in a lower corner, "Pi—December 27, 1890."  Some thought her spelling was bad; others consulted the dictionary, and waited.
            When we were all seated, for convenience, in groups of four, each was presented with a pretty souvenir, bearing a number.  Then the fun began.  Little slips were distributed, type-written, apparently in a foreign tongue for the first line read: "Howtuit eth rodo elt wosror eli."  But when, in ten minutes, time was called, there were several who had made out four lines of an ancient Christtide song.  The next task was to find the real names of twenty cities in a list which began with "Thinanswog," "Selimsaler," and "Bunghider," and a little longer time was allowed.  The third slip contained fifteen startling statements, such as "Eli Whitney wrote 'The Excursion,'" "Napoleon invented the cotton gin," "Wordsworth was called 'The Little Corporal,'" etc., the problem being to put the proper subjects and predicates together.  After several more rounds of original pi came the final test.  Each guest was given a paper arranged like this:
No. 24, Mr. Brown, SIX WORDS
4. early                        23. preserve            6. love
12. maiden            2. if                        19. fortune
            This meant that Mr. B. was to go about till he found six papers bearing his number (24).  From each he would get one word, and these six words he was to arrange in a quotation (with a personal application) to be immediately written down and handed in.  As everyone was moving about at the same time the search in each case wa a long and merry one.
            After this the prizes were awarded to those who had presented the best and poorest sets of answers during the evening; they consisted of pretty china "pie-plates"; a "pie-knife," paper-cutter; a real mince pie and a copy of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin."  At supper the cakes, meringues, and even the ices were served in pie shapes, and a huge paper-crusted Christmas pie held favors.

​***

In a seaport town in the late 19th-century Pacific Northwest, a group of friends find themselves drawn together —by chance, by love, and by the marvelous changes their world is undergoing.  In the process, they learn that the family we choose can be just as important as the ones we're born into.  Join their adventures in
The Tales of Chetzemoka
To read about the exhaustive research that goes into each book, click on their "Learn More" buttons!

First Wheel in Town
Buy the book​
​Learn more​​​

Love Will Find A Wheel
Buy the book
​Learn more

A Rapping At The Door
Buy the book
Learn more

Delivery Delayed
Buy the book
Learn more

***
Anthologies

Quotations of Quality
A Commonplace Book of Victorian Advice, Wit, and Observations on Life

The Wheelman's Joy
Victorian Cycling Poetry and Words About Wheels

Love's Messenger
A Choice Collection of 
Victorian Love Poetry

Words For Parting
Victorian Poetry on Death and Mourning