Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-04-02
SOCIAL Sins and SLAMS.
By LILLE HARRIS.

Vanity Fair! Then there Is another
| mode Of modern amusement, which in
| spires me with feeling of mild pity
and great wonderment, and that is why
on broiling hot summer days one is in
vited to lawn tennis parties. Think Of
lawn tennis when the thermometer reg
listers perhaps so degrees in the shaded
| am sure have felt sorry for girls
on these occasions. To see them flying
about looking flushed and dishevelled
their fringes automatically straight
through perspiration, and their noses
| peeling from the toe ardent embrace
| of the sun. Their hands brown, and
then, when the game has been finished,
they have sunk down breathless and
exhausted without spark of good in
them, and they wonder how it is that
| young men have not wandered round
| in their direction. Such violent exer-
| ton is, I am convinced, injurious, and,
| | am positive, unbecoming. Now that
lawn tennis is going out of fashion
there is golfng, and, worse than all,
! hiking. l have heard people say that
the latter is my pet abomination. They
are perfectly right. 1t really is. 1t
may be hopelessly old-fashioned, but
l must say that have strong dislike
for women showing their legs. They
, do this on the bicycle. There is no
doubt that they get fresh air, but at
what a cost. Their waist spreads.
Their hands get large, their feet broad,
their gait ungainly; and as for their
face-well, l think you can tell every
woman that rides bicycle by a GER
tain curious, anxious, strained express
sion about her weather-bea counte-
nance. No; hiking is a form of modern
amusement that may (mind, say may)
be healthy, but is certainly ugly and
unwomanly. Then there is our modern
amusement of balls-balls that would
really be enjoyable if our young men
, would dance, but they do not. They go
I'd PROP UP THE WALLS,
champagne, and smoke the cigars Of
their hosts and hostesses, and to be
stared at. But to be courteous and gen.
tlemanly-certainly not. They walk
about and do nothing, and SO poor girls
sit out the whole evening solely for the
want Of partners, and the hostess
hoe in ind CHI
men that she has invited to dance
spending the whole Of their time in the
refreshment rooms, and smoking in the
gardens. Selfishness and utter lack of
good breeding and consideration are the
characteristic marks of modern enter
tainments. l know lady in the prov
inces who gave ball, and, as usual,
the young men who were invited stroll
ed about, and did not dream of dane
ing. She gaze a second one, at which
royalty was present, and these young
tops were quite chagrined to find they
were not invited. When they spoke to
her of it she candidly said that she
and if she wanted men with swallow
tails to walk about the room she would
have engaged more walters. If only
more hostesses would follow this ex-
ample, we should soon be rid of these
offenders. But what 1 note most about
modern entertainments is the want Of
y,1,,, toll hn oaly Of hnn WI
the absence of any true feeling of
friendship. Guests come and partake
of hospitality and go away and abuse
their host and hostess, whilst the host
and hostess after the affair is over,
say piously: Thank heaven
WE HAVE DONE WITH THOSE
PEOPLE.
Now we shall not have to entertain for
the next six months. Vanity Fair
again. Vanity Fair. But the lack Of
sincerity the humbug and shallowness,
the artificiality, the hyprocrisy-it
sickens me. What is it you say? Am
I not as bad as the rest? Do l not go
10 HOUSES, lHe oWHeiS VI WHICH us
like? Do l not entertain people that l
cordially detest? Of course l do. Be-
cause belong to a-<ity Fair the same
as you do. God help US as women, if
this abominable idea is allowed to -four
ish as in France, where year after year
the population gets less, where year
after year the Government offers every
inducement for women to become
mothers. Look at its wretched present,
its miserable past, its uncertain future.
Let us love our children and be moth
ers to them in the truest sense of the