Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-12-31

man" and try to get rid of the title Of society
man. He had spent some very stupid evenings
In consequence, and so he had resolved for the
new year TO do what he chose What a unique
resolution. Most people, when January
comes around. make high moral resolves and
map out for the new wear a course of conduct
as exemplary and self-denying as il is disagree
able. They keep to their intentions for a week
and then gently slip back into their old ways.
but their condolences trouble them as they do
1t and they have guilty feeling. because they
have not ac.ed up to their theories. But the
society man just alluded to will have glorious
time for the year 1893 because he has deter
mined to enjoy himself. Let us see what his
various determinations are.
WILL ACCEPT ALL INVITATIONS.
First. he says he is going to accept all the
invitations he gets. provided they don't con-
flct, and when they do he il going TO attend
the party that promises the best enjoyment TO
him. He does not intend 10 let any obligations
to different people interfere in this matter.
Thus, if he has been honored by a dinner party
at Mrs. Blanks and soon afterward she asks
him to small whist party and on the same
evening with the whist party somebody whom
he knows but slightly gives n german. he is
going to cut the whist party at the eleventh
moment and go to the dance. for the simple
reason that he does not like whist and does Ike
dancing. OF course this will be disagreeab.e TO
Mrs. Blank. who has invited only limited num-
Der OF guests and expects those who accept to
be present but he IL not running his circus
with view to other peoples convenience, but
solely with reference to his own. Furthermore
he is going in search OF invitations when he
wants them. He may, during his temporary
periods of good behavior. have resisted the i'm
pulse of paying his respects to people simply
because they are rich and entertain. but he will
resist no longer He saws he will make it his
fO NIL 10. he ,r.nI
have himself introduced to them when he meets
them in society, that he will show them atten-
lions, call on them, get invitations to their
parties and go. If to do this involves the ne
eject OF his old friends, then he will neglect
them.
WILL STAY LATE AT PARTIES.
Second. he declares he has resolved TO stay as
late at parties as he wishes. Heretofore he has.
as the small hours have come. always been both
cred with the reflection that the next morning
will find him rocky" and that he will go to his
Office with an indigestion and headache. On
this account he has frequently gone home an
hour or more before he wished to. but now he
VIII not care rap about the next morning.
but will stay as long as he is enjoying himself
and will eat and drink whatever he wants with
out stopping to consider whether or not it is
good for him The next morning can take care
of itself. Sufficient unto the evening is the
evil thereof. As for his Office. that too. can
take care of itself. He will go to it, of course
but he cannot reasonably be expected to do
much work. and if any over-sanguine man does
expect it he will find himself disappointed
When Lent comes perhaps ne will rest from his
society duties and perform the Others but nm
til then he has made the glorious resolution of
attending wholly to the business of pleasure.
WILL GO TO AFTERNOON TEAS
His third resolution is a singular one. for he
declares he will go to afternoon teas. The real
out and out. dyed-in- .he-wool, concentrated
and italicized society man affects to consider
teas as beneath his dignity. He viii call in tine
afternoon, and while calling will take a Gun of
tea, but to 60 to teas is thing he leaves to the
younger men. the sprouts of society "a it were
He, ful-branched, tough old oak of the draw
ing rooms. cannot condescend 10 spread the
ample shadow of his presence over the motley.
bowling assembiage that constitutes an after
noon tea. but the man whose resolutions are
being given here is determined to 90 to teas
during the year 1893. and the reason he give.
for doing 20 Is that he really likes them al
though he has always, heretofore preten,,e.
not to. He says in his opinion an afternoon
tea Is not as good as an evening party. an even
ing party not as good as dance a dance not a.
good as a german, german not az good as a
dinner-the dinner being the acme of enter
tanning But in the afternoon he would rather
go to n tea than take walk or sit at the club
and. therefore. he intends going to tea when
ever the spirit moves nina.
WILL NOT BENEFIT HIM ANY
1t will be seen that the life that our society
man has laid down for himself is hardly one
that will be of any physical or mental benefi
to him. II he eats and drinks anvthin. and
everything at all hours of the night it will be
only reasonable to expect his liver to arise in it,
wrath and smite him hip and thigh. He will be
yellow and unhealthy in appearance long be-
fore Lent comes Then. again, the remark OF
Lord Byron about the necessity of inebriatior
may be paraphrased by the sentence. man
being human must get sleep. And how is he to
get sleep il he arrives at his home at 3 o'clock
in the morning and at his office Mt 9 O'Clock?
That allows six hours for the process Of un-
dressing. sleeping, dressing and eating break
fast, which is altogether an insufficient amount
of time. The consequences of this course of
life will be jaded. feeble air, which. perhaps,
may be temporarily overcome by strong waters
and il the society man takes to that he may end
by giving society up entirely and putting the
pursuit of bacchanalisn pleasures in its place
He will not have the time TO take any exercise
in the open air, but of exercise in close rooms
in the dead of the night he will have more than
enough. for he will get over miles of space in
dancing. Just calculate the size of a room
where there is dancing, then calculate the num-
Der of times good dancer traverses it from the
one end to the other in the course Of the even
ing. then count the number OF revolutions he
makes while he is whirling from one end to the
other, add it all up and you will be surprised to
find that In one evening man or q woman NAV
actually have danced eighteen o. twenty miles,
The people who can walk that far are not nu-
merous, yet many people dance it without
thinking they are doing anything extraordinary.
Even with a square dance like the lanciers the
number of times the couples go forward and
back again, swing their partners chasse to the
right and left and whirl around in the grand
chain goes to make up Q very respectable
amount of exercise. There can be no doubt
that il the people who go great deal into soci-
ETY. and are fond of dancing would dance in the
open air, or even in the sytime. they would be
in q state OF athletic training which would ex-
cite the admiration and envy of all the rest of
the community. In the generation before the
present one it used to be no uncommon thing
for belle at ball to literally dance through
the soles Of her thin slippers. and nowadays the
dancers generate such heat from the friction Of
the soles Of the shoes against the floor that the
soles Of their feet feel scorched But dancing
is not conducive 10 rosy cheeks or vigorous
physical characteristics, simply because it is
done at the hours when people ought to be in
bed, and also because it is done in an artificial
atmosphere.
WILL MARRY A BIcH Girl.
But perhaps the society man may stop dane
ing, for his last res olution is one that il sue
cessfully carried out may result in his folding
his hands and simply killing time the balance Of
his life. He says that he is determined that the
year 1898 shall not close upon him without his
being engaged to be married and that he in
fanda IN n Oirl yrhn "a r;~h ,,ratxv