Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-04-01
WHEN 70 ARRIVE.
q Point In Etiquette That Novices Find
Hard to Learn.

Hard to Learn.
Much experience of social functions,
large and small, is needed to enable an
arrival to be thoroughly well timed
neither moment too soon nor too late.
To arrive, say, a little before or even pre-
cisely at quarter to o'clock''-the
hour named on dinner invitation card
has quite provincial air on the face of
it and is embarrassing to both hostess
and guest 1t was not intended that the
hour should be taken literally on the
stroke OF the clock. On the contrary, it
was meant that quarter Of an hours
grace should be given to insure pune
tuality. Occasional diners out fearful
of being too late or a little late, have a
knaok Of arriving painfully early, be-
fore either host or hostess have descend
ed to the drawing room, and the wait
to these guests, however short it may
be, appears to them the longest five
minutes ever spent. The host and host
ess are ruff1ed at not being found at
their post and the guests full of apollo
gies for having called them to it. There
is no time in the day when few min
utes one way or the other possess more
significance than those that precede the
dinner hour, and SO thoroughly is this
understood by society that no one wish
es for an enforced tete-a-tete with a
host OF hostess by being overpunctual
and arriving before the orthodox quar-
ter of an hour has begun its course. So
strictly is this unwritten rule with re-
gard to these few minutes observed that
o hidden guest will undergo much in.
convenience rather than infringe it.
A man who knows his world and the
exact moment to arrive will relate how
during cab strike he allowed a good
half hour in which to walk from his
own house to that of his host, but uneX-
pectedly meeting with a handsom he
thoughtlessly engaged it and found him.
self landed at the door a good 20 min
utes before the dinner hour. Rather than
transgress fashions law or explain his
presence at so early ali hour he walked
around and up and down and at length
aroused the suspicious of a policeman,
vino kept watchful eye upon him I'M
til he disappeared within the portals of
his friends house, making, as was his
wont, we'll timed arrival, neither dis
concerning his entertainers by arriving
700 SOON nor causing tHeul duHOydHC6 NY
arriving late.
This rule in the matter Of arriving
does not apply in the same way to in
vitations to balls and dances The hour
named on the card is the one at which
q hostess would be most pleased to well
come her guests, but they, on the con-
trary, have decided distaste to warm
ing rooms, as it is termed, and prefer
to make more distingue entree some
half to three quarters of an hour later,
when the rooms are comparatively well
filled.
To arrive at an afternoon Eat home"
punctually at the hour named on the
cards would not surprise the hostess,
but it would be unfashionable-a word
which means much-and decidedly dis
concerting to those who thus arrive. 1t
generally leads to dull half hour of iso
lation which might have been avoided.
Early arrivals are usually those very in
innate with a hostess, and with whom
sho has much i'll common. These are
privileged to arrive early and pay no