Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-01-28


N He said il was a posi-
tive pleasure 10 find
himself in place where everybody seemed
to be enjoying himself
And SO it is pleasure to look at il all. even II
you are not part of it yourself. Carriages
aash from house to house, pretty women, young
ones ana old ones. are going up and coming
dowa steps, young men, middle-aged men and
oid men dressed in shining silk hats and long
handsome overcoats. are walking the streets
Inc horses are sleek and well groomed and
wear harness rich with silver and even gold
ornaments, and the coachmen and footmen are
royalty arrayed in broadcloth box coats and
heavy fur capes. Everybody seems clad 70 see
everybody else. The clubs, too. have their FLAGS
nylng and men with holiday mien are going in
ana coming out. What is il all about? WHY,
SIMPLY the season is at its height, and people
are paying calls. There are calls Of all kinds
calls OF duty. calls of pleasure and even CLOSE
calls, but tine kind that are meant here are
those visits among friends which society re-
quires should be made as a mark of respect, or
some other reason equally good.
CALLS OF DUTY AND PLEASURE
Now these calls are calls of duty or OF pleas-
ure too, and while they are usually of the latter
KIND they are not always so. One man paws
calls because the people whom he visits have
]
another does the same thing because he hopes
that they Will invite him. One goes I'm hopes of
finding the people out and another hopes to find
them IN One wants to see his hostess and the
next man wants TO see some one else who he
hopes will be found calling at the same time
with himself at the same place. Some of these
callers have something new TO say at each house
and some say the same thing over again. Stop
ping moment to consider this phase OF the in
stitution: it will be found that the constant pay
Ing OF calls is decidedly severe tax upon the
mental resources Of the ordinary mortal Thus
goes to see Mrs. b. The conversation is
about as follows:
A. How do you do, Mrs. B? Iamso glad to
find you at home"
Mrs. b. $50 glad to see you. And what have
You been doing since saw you last?"
A. "Oh, just wandering around"
Mrs. b. Have you been very CAV? 1t seems
to me 1t has been a very CAV winter
A. Gay, Well, should saw So It's per-
fecty glorious, you know-dinner parties, ger
mans, suppers. everything going on, and do
assure you enjoy it immensely"
You see is jolly fellow and he expects
his hostess to share his happy mood with him.
But after he has left her in comes and in
response to Mrs. 81 inquiry as to what he
has been doing since she saw him last he
replies:
II have been to several parties, but don't YOU
think they are a decided bore? And, really
that they get tired of each other I find il
quite tiresome and depressing, and think I'll
go south till it gets quieter." Let him go by
all means. He is not half as tired OF the peo-
pie he meets as they are of him. He bores
everybody more than they bore him. Laugh
and the world laughs with YOUR" and. con-
versely, get tired of the world and the world
will be tired of you.
THE TASK OF THE HOSTESS.
But what quick change of mood the hostess
has to go through with. She is obliged to be
jolly with jolly man and doleful with a GROWER.
She has a mood of her own. perhaps, but each
one of her callers brings his own moad with
him and insists upon her conforming to il. Ii
must be confessed that a woman on her recep-
ton day does not get very much maintained
conversation with her guests. They do not stay
long. and even if they do she is being inter-
rupted by people who keep coming in or going
out. She does not say very much and very
likely she asks the same questions OF each per-
son who comes in and receives replies that
strongly resemble each other and can be classi-
fed into four categories. as the lively reply the
gloomy reply, the stupid reply and the bright
reply. There Is not much chance for the last
named, and even if a visitor does succeed IN
perpetrating joke he is so well pleased with
it that he carries it on with him from house TO
house and il fast gets worn out and becomes
before the day is over, nothing better than
about a reply OF this kind that invariably gives
it away, as it were You can ALWAYS tell
whether the joke is fresh whether it has been
laughed at by several distinct sets of people
thus man goes calling on a gloomy day and
as be enters the parlor his hostess saws:
''Such dreary day, Mr.. Blank, isn't it?"
at is never gloomy here" he answers
"Oh, how kind OF you to say SO" she saws
"No. no." he says, ''it is you who are kind.
Inc sun Is always SHINING IN your parlor."
WORKED OVER COMPLIMENT.
The hostess being pleased. as she may natur-
ally be, at this little compliment he lets it loose
In the next house he visits, and then in the
next, and then in the next, but each time it Is
tanner. Perhaps. after n time his hostess NAV
saw to him. as a Washington lady did under
similar circumstances. How often have Won
paid that Compliment this afternoon2" and he
was Obliged to confess that he had done 40 sir
times.
1t is not every man who likes to nav calls.
even in Washington, where the people are SO
hospitable and receive the caller SO pleasantly.
Some men do il because they think they ought
to. and some do it because thew really must.
The former class 60 to see their old friends. not
because they wish to see them. but because thew
have general rule that il is respectable thing
to do and the others go to return civilities that
cannot be satisfied in any other way. IL a
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