The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-12-10
THE UPPER CIRCLES.
HOW THE SWELL WOMEN MANAGE
THE LION BUSINESS.

A Lady Who Finds Parliamentary Prac.
tice Good Training for the MANAGE
ment of Receptions-Getting into the
Higher Circle of Gentility.
Literary people are very like other
people, and we may presume that they
have not altered much since Thackeray
wrote "Pendennis," but nOtwithstand-
ing the number of times this fact has
been repeated, we ordinary mortals go
on expecting something extraordinary
from them. We know it is not at a liter
airy house that ''languid beauty keeps
her pale faced court" and if we don't
get enough novelty to excuse her absence
we are apt to feel that we have been
cheated. We 60 there to hear the utter
ances of illustrious mouths, to compare
genius with common people, in order,
when it is over, to call the latter stupid
and dull and the other ridiculous, and
at last to take our hats and go away, say
ing "What fine talk"
There are houses in New York where
this sort of entertainment is provided;
temples of tedium, where people meet to
show off, and not to exchange mental
pleasure. The hostess there appears to
be no more than conversation manager;
when q lion roars she makes signs to the
other guests to keep silence just as if q
prima donna were singing or JOseffy were
at the piano. She listens with all her ears
and constrains her guests to listen to all
the nonsense that may flow from cele-
brated lips, while she STILES her yawns
and rustles her fan at every word uttered
by a nobody. Matter cannot be sensible
unless it is vouched for by fashionable
name. With such a principle for its
raison d'etre salon cannot be but I'M
society will not believe that hostess
treats the favorites of the public with sys-
tematic adulatiOn because she regards
them with frank sympathy and sincere
admiration. 1t ascribeS her action to
motives of personal vanity
Jennie June is the exact antipode Of a
hostess of this order; even her appear
ance says so. She is little woman,
with brown hair, small, sensitive
mouth, the quietest manners, and d low,
sweet voice. During her long incum-
bency of the Sorosis chair she never once
lost the reins of order, and her voice had
never to be raised to command the atten-
ton of the logic loving sisterhood.
EX-PREsIDENT OF sORosIs.
suppose good hostess needs knowl-
edge of the rules of debate, and because
of her thorough acquaintance with
"Robinson" we need go no farther to i'll
quire why Mrs. Croly is so successful in a
private capacity. She answers precisely
to the de finitiOn of the truly superior
woman who knows enough never to ask a
ridiculous and i'll timed question and never
to oppose people of merit on the ground
of personal prejudice. Her parliament.
airy ability comes in to help her keep
apart two powerful antagonists eager to
tilt and to display their learning by dis
putting about a question that nobody
wants to understand; she believes in
making the subject general, q piece of
wisdom taught her no doubt by the Soro-
sis where it is said, all the members
want to talk at once.
Personally Jennie June is favorite
with all kinds of people; with the doc
tors, who like her because she desires to
learn and is attentive to any good things
they may say; with the ignorant, because
she does not care to humiliate them, and
is indulgent to their absurdities i'm a
word, she knows how to keep silent,
and that, no doubt, far more than her
parliamentary skill, is the secret of her
success.
nave you ever tnOuSnC now IOnely II
woman may be-nay, is certain to be
without friends or society in great city
like this? If man is a gregorious animal,
woman is UNNECESSARILY more so. Liv-
ing in New York, surrounded to-day by
friends and fiatterers, is q lady who left
Chicago upon her marriage with man
in politics. about four years ago. She
was Il good deal surprised at first by the
snubbing she received, and when her
hind took in the fact that she must make
n position for herself, she realized at the
same moment the herculean nature of
the task. She accomplished her ends
only after n thousand rebuffs and a
thousand notifications and Sights. Con
scquently she is able to tell you that New
York society knows how to protect it
self; she could tell you how il encom-
passes itself about with ceremOnials al
most with armed force, and she could
estimate the proper amount of admira-
ton that is due the successful social
pushcr, VINO, keeping her object in view
constantly, wades through the sea %
difficulties that divides her from the goal
of her ambition until by incredible eXer-
ton, by ingenuity, by hook, by crook she
attains the higher circle of gentil.ty.-
Willis Steel in Chicago Times.
Mountain Meteorological Stations.