The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-01-14

tolQ Inat o Weren I CORDIAL enough 10
Jones, that you were too cordial to Brown,
and that there was no necessity for you to
freeze RObinson-to be told that you
haven't the first instinct of a housewife,
else you would know that when a man
put a paper away in his desk that he
really ought to have taken down town,
and of which you didn't remind him, for
the simple reason that you didn't know
anything at all about it; TO be told that
you are cross when YOU are so tired that
YOU are sulky when you don't wan to say
anything. and somebody belonging TO you
selects this special time to bring some n
in who has been told that you are a very
bright woman-this is the sort OF head
ache, the headache provoked by all these
little occurrences, that drive women either
into the arms of the devil, or into the in
sane asylum. | can't offer any patent
medicine TO cure i'll can only suggest
bat as ii is usually our own people. the
people we love, and who think they love
US, who give us such headaches, that they
begin the new year by an incubation OF
patience and consideration.
Now is the time of year when you read
about the swell set, the swagger set and
the literary set, and the people who don't
know any of them sigh and wonder how
TO get into society. l do SO wish that
every woman in the world would under
stand that she makes a society for her
self, and hat it is good, bad or indifferent,
as she chooses. Sh wonders which is the
best set in New York. 1t is like the best
set every place else. If it has riches, it
does not blazen them forth. If its
blood is blue its reputation is white. Its
daughters are not advertised in the daily
nanarS n q nrnfo==i0nol heavffpG md itG
sons are not conspicuous among the
horsey or fast set. 1t is charitable and
kind. Its men are honest and its women
are above ~reproach. The sets you read
about are rich yesterday. making a great
display today: its downfall is chronicled
tomorrow, and the people who formed it
are forgotten the day alter. Its women
rate everything from a money tand-
point, and the ups and downs OF the street
mean the increase or decrease of their So
called friends.
New York's literary set has little to
recommend it, except that the women in
it pose as writers OF renown, 4 name
which they mistake for notoriety. They
talk about subjects they do not IN
derstand in the least, and most OF them
are examples of how a w~ell-advertised pill
is swallowed without question as to what
it contains. To get into any of the Oft
quoted sets is not difficult: good dressing,
u little money, a skin somewhat thick,
and a tongue somewhat acrid, with Il good
supply OF scandalOus stories, will gain adj
mission for a woman. while for the man,
well, usually, especially in the literary
set, men are in such demandtha they are
taken, no matter how or through whom
they may come. You who are of in some
far vii and wish you could see all this
gayety that you read about, really can al
ford to laugh it to scOrD, for a set does not
make society. Society Is the gathering to-
gether of two or three, five or six, or as
MANY as you will, who find much in life
about which they agree, and who like to
come together to exchange a pleasant
word, to have a pleasant hour, and to
know that which is really and truly a
pleasure. The other is the basest imita-
tion-eyen the people in it know that the
gingerbread is not improved by the gilt,
or that it is worth offering TO anybody but
the fool who iangles his cap and bells as If
he were proud Of his position.
While YOU are wishing, wish for some
thing better than getting into any OF he
sets. wherever they may be.
Wish that you may have a broader mind
and a more charitable tongue.
Wish that you may not see so quickly
wherein is the fault. and that You may
find without any trouble just where the
virtue is.
Wish that you may be co~ntented-not
without ambition, but seeing the good
that surrounds YOU.
Wish that you may have a courteous
manner, a kind word, and a considerate
thought for every man, and child
in the world.
Wish all these things with intensity
they will be worth having. and they will
surely come unto you. Bah.