The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-08-03
INCIDENTS IN LONDON SOCIETY.
The Difficulty One Has to Get Ac-
quainted-


They never present people to one another
here in London, and consequently stranger
has very uphill time of it, says Elizabeth
Bisland in HdrDer's Bdzdr. One does not,
for example, like to 90 up to a strange man
and take his breath away with ones light
and genial American peTsifiage, and if one
speaks to strange woman, she clasps her
diamonds and screams for the police. The
result Is that lost dog is q comfortable aud
gregarious person beside a stranger in a
grand London squash party" 1t used to
be explained loftiiy 70 my crude and ignor-
ant lack Of appreciation of this form of
hospitality that 1t was supposed all persons
you mot at your hosts house were your
equals, if not your superiors, and that
therefore one was at liberty to speak with
out the formality Of being presented. But
this found by experiment was a theory
the practice of which was honored in the
breach. At the Brassey's, wedged into
bowling wilderness of my fellow-man,
standing on my tiptoes. trying to catch a
glimpse of some one who owned a fond pro-
fesslonal MARBLE that was doing soprano
antics above our heads, a strange man
spoke to me. 1t was on the whole rather
an innocent remark He said, Come
little this way, aud you'll see better"
And | came. Then he said, Awful
crushp And, after thinking over this
minute, | saw l could not safely deny it,
and said it was, rather. And then we
cont1ded certain opinions we held about the
weather to one another, and he got in some
telling remarks about London being very
crowded just now; and l retorted, with
real American vivacity, that one was
dragged to death with the effort to
do everything and go to half a dozen
places in one night-which I'd not been
doing, but knew it was the proper thing
to say. Some one vacated a char
near by at this moment, and he quoted the
beginning of the Persian proverb about Pts
being better to be sitting than standing, and
the rest of it; and when | had sat down, he
leaned over the chair and told most anus
Ing little anecdotes about the people about
us. all OF whom he seemed to know. He was
really very nice man. He had red hair
that crimpled all over his head, and a red,
sunburnt face, a straight nose, and ex-
tremely white teeth, and looked as if he
might have been a soldier. Indeed, he said
he'd just come home from five years in
India.
Unfortunately l was telling him my ex-
perlence with the frivolous set in London:
how that in America they were gay, with
an airy light-mi dedness, and did not enter
upon course of frivohty with this stern
Anglo-Saxon sense of duty-a sort of
whatsoever thy hand findeth to- do-do-it-
wlth-all-thy might expression for the
Anglo-Saxon is mighty, even when be is
fast. And he found something funny in
that, for he threw back his head and haw-
hawed rather loud, and suddenly felt that
Lady B was fixing me with her glitter
ing eye, and that had done those things
ought not to have done. Happily some one
spoke to him at the moment, aud while his
attention was distracted rose and fed.
Pray" said Lady b, in her severest
tones, who is this persona Is he an init
mate friend of yours2"
20. no." said l, discreetly. mot very in
innate"
How. intimate, may l asks Intimate
enough for you to know his Manner
never said another word, and was borne
home IN disgrace. Since that time suffer
in silence. and should any man approach
with sociable intent in his eye I nip it
frlgidly in the bud-hut he was really a
very agreeable and amusing man.