New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-12-31
dishonor. And until such practices are broken
up it will DO found that evcry\fr involved
by Custom house seizure will hayo tho pub
lie symDathy
THE HOSTESS OF TOMORROW.

THE HOSTESS OF TOMORROW
Tomorrow Society puts the American
woman on trial. Any other day of the year
she is wife, mother, Christian professor; ruled
by the Ten Commandments but tomorrow
she is simply hostess-an acquaintance-and
to be judged from that transient, touch and-go,
unwritten code of morality in which virtue
implies popularity, and guilt, a bore.
Outside of very narrow circle in the
largest cities, where girls arc trained from
infancy, with all the appliances of wealth and
culture, TO fill a certain place in society,
woman in this country usually appears to least
advantage looked at in this purely superficial
aspect, simply because it is not her normal
condition; because, as we said, she Is trained
to be wife and mother and is only
a member of society in an accidental, occa-
sional sort of way. A young girl, as matter
of course, makes her debut" but it is not
expected that drawing-rooms, balls, and opera
are to be her abiding-p place and standing
ground for the rest Of her life, AZ with an
English or French girl entering society. Some
thing of the old Puritan domestic idea rules
us, unrecognized, still. The pretty damsel,
freed from school or masters in the inland
village or in the precincts of Madison square,
is to have her way for a while, to taste the
bead on the cup, at its highest She shall
dance and dress, though the rest of the family
are stnted of proper food and clothes to
enable her to do it nor is this in
order to parade her in the mar
rage market, rs the Advanced Female
grimly asserts. There is too much chicanery
to make good matches among vulgar people
but there are fewer vulgar people In the world
than we are apt to suppose. The natural I'M
pulse with every mother and father is to look
back to their own Spring-time of joy and love,
and to strive with all their foolish fOndness to
give to their girl as warm and glad Spring.
Hang pearls about her white neck, and dainty
dresses Oh the soft limbs, and let her go dance
with the others: if love comes to her, is it not
the time of loye7 But when it comes and she
is married, there is a strong public opinion
which hints to her that her holiday is over.
Society is a holiday, matter OF an Occa-
sonal ball or dinner or New-Year's reception,
not the business of life, by which domestic
life gains; but we question whether something
worth regretting is not lost. The French
woman of the old salons, with her simplicity,
her broad culture, her fine tact, her wit, her
wisdom, and the skill which brought it all
home to her companion and made HIM pro-
pretor of it for the moment, is unknown among
us. The one or two women preeminent for
their social qualities are known by name over
all the country. The average woman, very
probably the most lOvable and charming of
creatures by her own fireside OF among her
own friends, appears on such an occasion as
Tomorrow as q soldier on dress parade. The
consciousness of novel duty weighs on her,
clogs her freedom of movement as his Sun
day clothes do the laborer out for frolic.
In thousands Of houses where the New Years
welcome is extended only to the actual friends
of the hostess, she is seen in the same soft
beartening light IA that by which her husband
and children know her every day
But in the drawing7rOoms thrown open to
what the entertainer chooses to consider fash
ionable mob whether the mob include the old
Knickerbocker families or Bowery swells, the
Same unnatural effort will in too many cases,
appear in the manner of the women the man
ner which all foreigners set down as dlstln-
c1jshinv characteristic, but which is nothing but
self-consciousness ev,nced in formality or flashy
loudncss, or most deplorable of all, in blind
gropng after elegance. of demeanor. All this,
perhaps, is unavoidable: to be Recamier de-
mands the audience of Recamier, which, heaven
be praised, is lacking. One mistake, however,
our women need not make, that OF taking it for
granted that it is the stomachs of men and not
their brains they are called upon to entertain to-
morrow. Until within year or two, they poured
out such unlimited offerings of wine, egg-nOg
and whisky before their guests, that it argued
they had little faith in their own charms of per-
son or wit. In fact, every woman became, for
the day, a Gree, and too often sent away her
friends in the condition of the last guests of the
old enchantress The social air has been cleaner
lately and less filled with drunken fumes on
New Years Day; and as the best houses have
act the example in this matter, we have every
hone that tomorrow it will be generally fol-