Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-07-06
MAKING CALLS.
The Humbug and Folly of This OuerouS
Social Custom.
What Multitude of Things People
Endure and Suffer For Forms Sake.

Whst beautiful civilization ours is
supposed to be, growing in intelligence
and simplicity, and yet voluntarily tax
ing upon itself this artificial burden III
an already overtaxe6 life! The angels in
heaven must admire and wonder. The
cynic wants TO know what is gained for
any rational being when city full of
women undertake to make and receive
formal visits with persons whom for the
most part they do not wish to see. What
is gained he asks, by leaving cards with
all these people and receiving their cards !
When = women makes her tedious rounds,
why is she always relieved to find people
not inf When she can count upon her
ten fingers the people she wants TO see,
why should she pretend TO want IL see
the others! Is any one deceived by it.
Does anybody regard it as anything but
a sham and burden! Much the cynic
knows about it! Is it not necessary To
keep up what is called society? Is it not
necessary to have an authentic hst of
pasteboard acquaiutances to invite to
receptions! And what would become OF
Us without receptions! Everybody
likes to give them. Everybody hocAs
to them with much alacrity. When
society calls the roll. we all know the pen
atty of being left out. Is there any intel
iGctual or physical pleasure equal TO that
of jamming so many people INTO house
that they can hardly move, and treating
them to Babel of noises in which no one
can make herself heard without scream
ing? There is nothing like reception
in an uncivihzed country. 1t Is so eNhil-
arating! When q dozen or a hundren
people are gathered together i'll 4 room,
they all begin to raise their voices and to
shout like booksellers in the noble rivalry
OF "warious laugwidges,' rasping their
throats into brochitis III the bidding of
the conversational ring. If they spoke
low, or even in the ordinary tone, CONVEX
sation would be possible. But then il
would not be reception, as We under
stand it. We cannot neglect, anywhere
any of the pleasures of our social life.
We train for it in lower assemblies. Half
a dozen women in a "call" are obliged to
shout just for practice, so that they can
be heard by everybody in the nelghhor-
hood except themselves. Do not men do
the same? If they do it only shows that
men also are capable of the higher civil
zatIon.
But does society-that is, the inter
course of congenial people e-dePend
upon the elaborate system of exchanging
calls with hundreds of people who are not
congenial? Such thoughts will sometimes
come by winter treside Of rational
talking friends, or at a dinner party not
too large for talk without telephone or
in the summer time by the sea or in the
cat.afie in tho hills, when the fever of
yaI I; 50 hna t.Nn 1 -.
perature. We fancy that sometimes
people will give way to real enjoyment
of life, and that human intercourse will
throw off this artificial and wearisome
parade, and that if women look back with
pride, dis they may, upon their personal
achievements and labOrs, they will also
regard them with astonishment. Women,
we read every day, long for the rights
and privileges of meu, and the education
and serious purpose in life of men. And
yet, such is the sweet self sacrifice of
their nature, they voluntarily take On
burdens which men have never assumed,
and which thoy would speedily cast off if
they had. What should we say of men {
they consumed half their time in
paying formal calls upon each other
merely for the sake of paying calls,
anu were -SplIlhtu IL Ghty ulu hpI
receive as many cards as the had dealt
out to society," Have more time?
and if they have, why should they spend
it in this Sisyphus task: Would the
social machine go to pieces-the inquiry
Is made in good faith, and solely for in
fOrmation-if they made rational bust
ness for themselves to be attended to, or
even If they gave the time now given to
calls they hate, TO reading and study, and
to making their household civilizing cen
tres of intercourse and enjoyment, and
paid visits from some other motive than
clearing off their list?' If all the artifi
cial rounds of calls and cards should tum-
BILE down, what valuable thing would be
lost out of anybody's life?
The question is too vast for the Drawer,
but as an experiment in sociology it would
like to see the system in allegiance
for one season. If at the end of IL there
had not been just as much social enjoy
meut as before, and there were not fewer
women than usual down with nervous
prostratiOn, it would agree to start at its
own expense a new experiment, to wit, a
kind of so:ial clearing house, in which al!
cards should be delivered and exchanged,
and all social debts of this kind be bal
anced by experienced book keepers, so
that the reputation Of everybody for
propriety and conventionality should be
Just as good as it is now.