Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1861-04-30
Society and sociabiIity.


AS society exists it is a very dull institu
ton. Its primary object may be supposed
70 be amusement its primary need is most
decidedly amusementS And this need
the progress of civilization has not tended
TO remove. The world, in fact, grows dull
Ter rather than brighter, especially in all
Its sociable aspects. Socia6ie! As ap-
phed to the intercourse between pantaloon.
ed bipeds. there is no greater misnomer in
The Language. People, it is true, do meet
together ostensibly to be sociable, but the
result is usually failure. See a party of
pleasure anywhere. How spasmodic is the
effort to realize the objects of the party
conversation has been supposed by some
people to be legitimate source of pleas
ure among cultivated people; but converse.
ton requires such things as ideas, humor,
wit, fancy Imagination, knowledge and
culture; 1t can only be sustained by good
listening, as well as good talking, and good
listening is almost the rareI gift of the two,
for itrequires an intelligent sympathy and
vide appreciation rarely discoserable.-
Conversation, therefore, is very ant, in a
party of pleasure, to prove exactly the last
thing the company are capable of sustain
ing. Something, then, must be found as q
substitute. Very often it is whist. Now
cards are agreeable under certain circum-
stances, but not in a mixed company. If
four, or eight, confessed prayers are assem-
bled for that purpse, with, as Charles Lamb
says, "a swept hearth, bright fire, snuff
ed candles, and the rigor of the game, "
why then whist is as enjoyable as anything
you can name among mundane AFFAIRS
But usually it is very melancholy enter
tainment. Whist failing 30 amuse, it
sometimes happens that a dance is extern.
poriZed-which doesn't improve matters;
for the music is always Indifferent, and it
invaribly breaks down at an unfortunate
moment, leaving some luckless couple
stranded high and dry in the midst of a
balance" or forward two." After this
second failure the devices for amusement
grow desperate. People run about with q
wild anxiety depicted in their faces
Something really must be done, for the
gentlemen are in the corners settling down
alphabetically into stocks or politics, the
elderly DANES are beginning to drift towards
that inevitable subject, servantgalsm; and
certain others less resigned, less aecus-
tened to social martyrdom, exhibit unmis-
taxable signs of fatigue and ennui. In
this crisis some impulsive and despairing
individual will propose one of the old
childish games, and in utter resignation,
the whole intellectual assembly, condo.
sends to seek for amusement in some
preposterOus device, additionally known
to the households of the country, but for
which we have no name. Or, if the com.
pany be too dignifed for this, you will see
it gradually CONCEAL into an icy frigidty,
which nothing but inspiration or an effort
of genius can dissolve. First the labor
iously sustained conversation will begin to
weaken. The takers will drop off, one by
one, frightened into silence by the icy
chill, 50 gradually and palpably creeping
from one to another around the doomed
circle. Soon the talk will degenerate into
a few random and scattered remarks; then
1t will cease altogether, except when one,
holder than the rest, will Gispairingly fire
off sentence, to be startled out of his
wits as he hears it reveberdtiDg through
the empty space. Talk abont Malakoffs.-
He is bold man, who, in social ~ assem-
blage, will venture, in the face Of ppsym-
pathctic hems and repeiling stares, to talk
on persistentiy and courageously until he
fairly storms the out works of indifference,
and forcibly brings the enemy over to good
will and sociability.
But really cannot something be done to
enlarge the area of social enjoyment?-
Private theatricals, tableaux parties, char
ade parties, and the like, have been resort-
ed to, but these Eecessitate great prepare.
ton and considerable expense. What is
needed are simple things ready always for
adoption. Music has been alwas one of the
stand-bys. and might be much more 80, if
there were more people who could sing q
spirited song spiritedly and a pathetic song
pathotically if, in short, expression and
elocution in music were better understood.
An Indifferent execution in q purely scieu-
tific way would be lost sight of, our word
for it, if the want was compensated for by
expression and vitility-two qualities very
rare. Dramatic reading is always
agreeable and might be generally adopted
A good short poem, selected with judgment
and read with taste, ought to please, at
least. Some of the most delightful social
evenings in our recollection were spent in
this way. We suggest this as one plan for
adoption. But, after all, the only reliable
thing is culture, from which may arise the
only true charm of society, conversation.
In fact, let us Try and make society, sociG
Jle. Nothing more will be really needed
Mrs. Stephens.