The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1888-09-15
THE SOCIAL GALL.

The cynic wants to know what is
gained for any rational being when a
city full of women undertake to make
and receive formal visits with persons
whom, for the most part, they do moi
wish to see. What is gained, he asks
by leaving cards with all these people
and receiving their cardsP When a
woman makes her tedious rounds, why
is she always relieved to find people
not in? When she can count upon her
ten fingers the people she wants to see,
why should she pretend to want to see
the others Is any one deceived by it?
Does anybody regard it as anything but
sham and a burden? Much the cynic
knows about it 1t is not necessary to
have an authentic list of pasteboard
acquaintances to invite to receptions
And what would become of us without
receptions1 Everybody likes to give
them. Everybody focks to them with
great alacrity. When society calls the
roll, we all know the penalty of being
left out. Is there any intellectual or
physical pleasure equal to that of jam
ming 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
screaming? There is nothing like re-
ception in any uncivilized country. 1t
is so exhllerating When a dozen or a
hundred people are gathered together
in room, they all begin to raise their
voices and to shout like booksellers in
the noble rivalry OF "warious langwidges" "
rasping their throats into bronchitls in
the bidding of the conversational ring.
If they spoke low, or even in the ordi
nary tone, conversation would be i'm
possible, but then 1t would not be a
reception, as we understand it.
But does society-that is, the inter-
course of congenial people-depend
upon the elaborate system of exchang
ing calls with hundreds of people who
are not congenial2 Such thoughts will
sometimes come by winter fireside of
acknowledging friends or at a dinner
party not too large for talk without a
telephone, or in the summer time by
the sea, or in the cottage in the hills,
when the fever OF social life has got
down to normal temperature. We
fancy that sometimes people will give
way to real enjoyment of life and that
human intercourse will throw off this
artificial and weaIisome parade. and
that if women look back with pride, as
they may, upon their personal achieve
ments and labors, they will also regard
them with astonishment. Women, we
read every day, long for the rights and
privileges of men, 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 they would speedily cast of
if they had.
What should we say of men If they
consumed half their time in paying
formal calls upon each other merely for
the sake of paying calls, and were low
spirited if they did not receive as many
cards as they had dealt out to society?
Have they not the timer Have women
more time j.? 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 information-if they made
rational business 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
households civilizing centres OF inter
course and enjoyment, and paid visits
from some other motive than clearing
off the llst?' If all the artificial round
of calls and cards should trouble down,
what valuable thing would be lost out
of anybody's hfe2-Harper'S Maga-
zine.