The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-07-13
Modern Hospitality.

ua.are .supuosed to have civilized the
forms and perfected the art of society. we
look back on the rude feasts of our forefa-
theirs with disdain and wonder at t Re.
9t least, they fed the poor in those days OF
rider living; and feast, If wanting IN
oastronomic art, was bountiful In hospl-
talitv. AS it is, hospitality is name; no
more. There is mono of it in the sense OF
sharing YOUR goods with others, in our mod
ern Entertainments. dinner or a sotPec is
social obligation discharged pertorce; or
an occasion for display; or both comolned:
To prefer those who need Is as iarfemoVeo
from the calculations OF the host as the
g fre-party imagined by Punch. NO one
who gives a party, as it is called, thinks OF
tha real Measure or good which it will be
| to the guests only whether 1t Is - wei
done" according to the conventional stand
ard-that is, rejecting honor on the SiTer.
| The arrangements OF society are in them
selves utterly barbarous, while affecting to
bc snecially civilized. One could imagine
simDle. generous, and most delightful
I,nouet. with music and FLOWERS, and plenty
of snoce and freedom of action-a banquet
that did not include three long hours OF
cramp aud surfeit with an indigestion to
follow, or a crowded crush IN slihihg
room where conversation is Impossible, and
the music not worth listening to. One
! could imagine arrangements more artistl-
cally lovely than now, yet not more costly j;
a welcome more hearty, and with less par
, Ads. But our civilization dooms us TO
table where one side freezes and the other
: burns; where draughts chill the naked
Q shoulders at one end, and the heated air,
4 loaded with unwholesnme vapors, threat
= ems anoplexy at the other ; to rooms where
8 in delicate women turn sick and faint fol
Q want of oxygen in feeid atmosphere used
o ND by two or three hundred pair OF lungs
It it dooms US to accept invitations given by
Y people we dislike, and to eat thirgs tina
= will lsa cree with us, just as it dooms III
n to an artificial manner, an lnslncere smile
n - t.se speech it dooms US to open .ou
own house to hundreds of our fellow crea
q lures. not half dozen of whom we car
Y, ever to see again, just as 1t dooms US I
1t the suppression of all emotion, of all earn
ID est thought, of all honest words; ano
q when we have made ourselves the most Tx
n animated dolls in manner, and put our
rs selves to most Inconvenience for things W
@. detest and people we desplse in fact, the
ty we are considered of the best breeding an
u the most perfected civilization. Half tn
". entertainments, too, given by the mldd
Ia classes. are only possible through screwin
as and pinching in things more essential
or the true dignity of life than the giving OF
SO dinner badly cooked and worse arrange
er which no one who eats really enjoys. 1e
of if the food is questionable, kid gloves q
n, de rigGeuT and you cut your stale ~
y, with electro-plated knives ana forks OF 7,
" covenanted pattern. Honor 20 those WI
dare to offer simple pleasures within the
VS. means of money and service, and who l
TO vite to their house those whom 1t WAL DO
us delight and benefit, not those only who
or, thew saw they " must by the queer law
70, social reciprocity in boredom and pretenc
is I-CornhiH Magazine.