The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-11
some FrauIS Criticisms. r1,.. IT.,.,,,,ia Dnynn

Among the various customs which were in vogue twenty years ago, that of making evening calls has entirely disappeared The young man who is in business, and whose only leisure time is after six o'clock. is now, under this new social law. obliged to spend his evenings at his club or at the thea ter. If his acquaintance is limited and his means small, he must have a dull time indeed. The pleasant home life to which he was formerly admitted it is no longer his privilege to share. This new fashion has been adopted for vari- ous reasons chiefly because, as I have often said, we copy our styles from our foreign neighbors. The Englishman never pays an evening visit; his hour for calling on his friends is five o'clock, when he drops in for cup of tea. This rule of course applies to the Eng lishman of leisure, the great middle class having its own customs, which we do not choose to copy. We who are mostly working people prefer to have as our models the idlers and leaders in the social world, and so it follows that the great majority of our young men, who are toiling at their counting houses or in their offices, rarely see young women except at some formal gathering. The young women them selves do not have nearly so good time as they used to have; they ''come out at teas which no one enjoys, they go to receptions and dinners and dances and the opera. and they never have a quiet evening at home with their friends. Tn fact, they have little opportunity to make friends, every thing is so formal and stiff. It is too bad, but it must be the inevitable re- suit of life in big city, When we are in trouble our friends find us out, but when everything is prosperous with us we are left alone to enjoy ourselves in our own way. Sociability as 1t was for merly known exists no longer. and we must content ourselves that this is so.
 The fallacy holds among a certain class of persons that women in society have nothing to do, and that their time is spent idly in amusing themselves. This is by no means fact, So-called amusement is hard work, and there are no buster women than those whose oc- cupation consists in attending to the numerous details of social life. First there is the house to manage. If the household is small and the means mod crate, the housekeeper must devote at least an hour or two each day to the proper running of the establishment. She goes to her kitchen every morning after breakfast interviews her cook, looks over the stores, glances carefully into the refrigerator. and, in fact, ln- speets that entire floor. This done, and the orders given explicitly for the day, it is not necessary for her to go to the kitchen again. If eshe does her own marketing it is better to do 1t in the morning.
 Then there are the notes which must be written. It Is marvellous how many there are on ones desk which require an immediate answer Bills to look over. and to file away, and account books to write up Then there is shop ping to be done, and possibly sewing, and so the mornlng, hours slip by All most every woman has her days filled Oult every udN All III Elil6 lAS hBPClbANNa duty or engagements. There are the various classes which gather in the mornings, the meetings of committees of hospitals or what not, the sewing classes, the industrial schools. One woman of my acquaintance had seven classes a week in her own house. A sudden mania has seized upon women to improve their minds, and this sort of study appeals to those who really have not the time to devote to serious work. Lunch parties. followed by teas and calls, fill up the afternoon, and one reaches home just in time to dress for dinner, or if one has children one makes it a point to get home early enough to have an hour with them be- fore they have their tea. Nothing is done on the spur of the moment; invl- tations are sent out several weeks in advance of the entertainment. however small it may be, and ones time Is not one's own from the hour one returns to town until the hour one closes one's house for the summer.