Birmingham state herald., 1895-12-22
A GIRLS FIRST SEASON.
Coaching the Debutante to Make Good
 Impression.

Coaching the Debutante to Make a Good
 Impression.
 New York Evening Sun.
 All over the country thousands of young women are looking forward to looming out' this winter. To all of them the occasion is fraught with interest, though with some of them the interest is at a higher pitch than with others. To some girls success in society is almost matter of life or death. During the previous few years, while undergoing the finishing touches at boarding school, they have fairly trembled at the thought of the coming great event. All their lives, indeed has the importance of the matter been drilled into them. Object lessons as well as words have schooled them to a proper appreciation. They have seen and have reflected upon the consdera tion bestowed by every one upon the bellies of a season; as they have also seen and also reflected upon the commiseration, If not contempt, granted the noble army of women who are not beles. They know that to succeed them selves there must be no halfway work; they must make every effort, must strain every nerve. More than one girl during that last year at boarding school has been heard to say: "Oh, if don't sue ceed. what should I do? Why, there wouldn't be anything left but hari-kari, so far as l can see."
 There are those, of course, who do not regard the matter in quite the same light: young women, who, by force of character or by fortune of environment and other influences, realize that, after all, there are other things to live for. But however one may measure the i'm portance of looming out" no one can deny that it is important. It can occur but once. Other events in life may be duplicated or encored but "coming out" is never to be repeated. just as being young is never to be repeated. This fun damental fact, coupled with the stress 1t receives from the world of convention, accounts for the esteem ir which social success is held. Many young woman has failed, too, simply from lack of knowledge, not from lack of interest.
 There was once two sisters, one of whom had just entered upon her first sea- son. The other was an experienced creat- ure, who had been out two years. Each was fairly well favored, but 1t was the latter who was a social success. At dances she had more partners than she knew what to do with; she was greatly in demand at dinners. bothsby hostesses and guests; and at unwieldy affairs, like receptions, her presence was looked upon as as much of a necessity as the music, the flowers and the supper. "She made things go," as one hostess expressed 1t. But with the other girl 1t was different. She allowed herself to be handicapped by her youth and ineXperience. At dances she languished in corners alone; at dinners she ate her way straight through, as though they were funeral baked meats that were before her. At receptions and the like she simply stood round and longed to go home and so end the torture. There is no getting away from it." she said to herself at the end of a few weeks Pm dead failure"
 One day, when she could no longer stand it. she said as much to her sister "Nobody's fault but your own," returned the social success; you don't talk that's the trouble. You must begin right off, and talk talk, as if your life depend- ed on it. Oh I've watched you time and again. Why, you sat there the other night at Mrs. Havenoughs dinner hard ly opening your lips except to eat, and for my part don't see how you had any appetite when you were having such a stupid time. What you ought to have done was to turn to the man next to you and have just talked straight streak until his ears fairly hummed. Of course. what you say during this first winter will