St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1889-06-13
RECEPTIONS.

! reception IS the most ingenious,
and would probably most excite the
wonder of an angel sent down to in
spect our social life. If he should
pause at the entrance of house
where one is in progress, he would be
puzzled The noise that would greet
his ears is different from the deep,
continuous roar in the streets, it is
unlike the hum of millions of seven
teen-year locusts, it wants the must
cal quality OF the spring conventions
of the blackbirds in the chestnuts,
and he could not compare it to the
vOciferatiOn in a lunatic asylum, for
that is really subdued and infrequent
He might be able to ana1yze this, but
when he caught sight of the compa-
ny he would be compelled to recog-
nize it as the noise of our highest civ
ilization. 1t may not be perfect, for
there are limits to human powers of
endurance, but it is the best we can
do. 1t is not chance affair. Here
are selected, picked out by special in
vita ton, the best that society can
show, the most intelligent, the most
accomplished, the most beautiful, the
best dressed persons in the conmuni-
ty-all receptions have this character
The angel would notice this at once
and he would be astonished at the
number of such persons, for the
rooms would be so crowded that he
would see the hopelessness of at
tempting to edge or wedge his way
through the throng without tearing
off his wings. An angel, in short,
would stand no chance in one of
these brilliant assemblies on account
of his wings, and he probably could
not be heard, on account of the low,
heavenly pitch of his voice His in
ference would be that these people
had been selected to come together
by reason of their superior power Of
screaming. He would be wrong
They are selected on account of their
intelligence, agreeableness, and pow
er of entertaining each other. They
come together, not for exercise, but
for pleasure, and the more they
crowd and jam and struggle, and the
louder they scream, the greater the
pleasure. 1t is a kind of contest, full
of good humOr and excitement. The
one that has the shrillest voice and
can scream the loudest is most sue
cessfue. 1t would seem at first that
they are under a singular hallucina-
ton, imagining that the more noise
there is in the room the better each
one can be heard, and so each one
continues to raise his or her voice in
order to drown the other voices
The secret of the game is to pitch the
voice one or two Octaves above the
ordinary tone. Some throats cannot
stand this strain long; they become
rasped and sore, and the voices break;
but this adds to the excitement and
endowment of those who can scream
with less inconvenience. The angel
would notice that if at any time 81
1ence was called, in order that an an
nouncement of music could be made,
in the awful hush that followed peo-
pie spoke to each other in their natu
raj voices, and everybody could be
heard without effort. But this was
not the object of the Reception, and
in moment more the screaming
ing would begin again, the voices
going higher and higher, until, if the
roof were taken off, one vast shrek
would go up to heaven.
This is not only a fashion, it is an
art. People have to train for it, and
as it a unique amusement, it is worth
some trouble to be able to succeed in
it. Men, by reason of their stolidity
and deeper voices, can never become
profcients in it; and they do not
have so much practice-unless they
are stock brokers. Ladies keep
themselves in training in their ordin-
airy calls. If three or four meet in
drawing-room they all begin to
scream, not that they may be heard
for the higher they go the less they
understand each other-but simply
to acquire the art of screaming at re-
ceptions. If half a dozen ladies meet
ing by chance in a parlor should con-
verse quietly in their sweet, ordinary
home tones, it light be in a certain
sense agreeable, but it would not be
fashionable, and it would not strike
the prevailing note of our c1v1liza-
ton. If it were true that group of
women all like to talk at the same
time when they meet (Which is a
Islander invented by men, who may
be just as lOquacious, but not SO
imber-tongued and quick-witted),
and raise their voices to shrek in
order to dominate each other, it
could be demonstrated that they
would be more readily heard if they
all spoke in low tones. But the OBJ
ject is not conversation; it is the So
cial exhileration that comes from the
wild exercise of the voice in working
off nervous energy; it is so seldom
that in her own house a lady gets
chance to scream.
The dinner party where there are
ten or twelve at table, is a favOrite
chance for this exercise. At a recent
dinner where there were a dozen I'M
commonly intelligent people, all ca
pable of most entertaining conversa-
ton, by some chance, or owing to
some nervous condition, they all be-
gan to speak in high voice as soon
as they were seated and the effect
was that of dynamite explosion.
1t was a cheerful babel of indistin-
guishable noise, so loud and shrill
and continuous that 1T was absolute
ly impossible for two people seated
on opposite sides of the table, and
both shouting at each other, to catch
an ineligible sentence. This made
lively dinner. Everybody was ami
mated, and if there was no conversa-
ton, even between persons seated
side by side, there was glorious
clatter and roar; and when it was
over everybody was hoarse and ex-
hausted, and conscious that he had
done his best in high social func
ton.
This topic is not the selection of
the Drawer, the province of which is
to note, but not to criticise, the high