The age-herald., 1901-04-03
Negligence About Invitations,

Now that invitations for the Easter gail cities are being sent out, an event which always recalls a line from Owen Mere dith,
 When cards, invitations and three-cor-
 nered notes
 Fly about like white butterflies-gay lit
 tie notes
 In the sunbeam of Fashion, it may be just as well to refer to the neg ligence that characterizes society folk in acknowledging these invitations. During the winter just passed several requests were sent to this department asking that attention be called to the fact that there was discourtesy on the part of many people in acknowledging invitations and urging that society folk adopt a new plan and promptly send acknowledge ment of their invitations.
 This neglect, which is frequently dis cussed, not only in Birmingham, but in other cities, is attributed to indiffer- ence or an ignorance of the demands Of conventionality, and not to any desire to be negligent or rude. Indeed, while 1t is absolutely objectionable to neglect ac- i knowledging an invitation, still the hos tesses of the present day have become so accustomed to having their invitations ignored that they no longer expect ac- Acknowledgements until the guest presents herself on the day of the function.
 There are many exceptions to this rule, of course, and hundreds of women who are most prompt in acknowledging their invitations. There is sufficient neglect, however, to warrant a change, and hos tesses will welcome any reform that de- mands a general response to their invi- tations.
 This remissness is by no means confined to the society woman. The men are far more negligent in acknowledging invita- tions. The functions of the winter to which men were invited left the host and hostess in doubt up to the very last min- ute. This refers to the bachelor contin- gent.
 At an evening card party of the winter there were probably twenty-five bachelors invited, but the hostess received not more than a half dozen acknowledgements ana had no idea whether her card party would pan out until twenty bachelors from whom she had not heard word present. ed themselves at her drawing room door the evening of her party. In the Louisville Courier-Journal this event of society folk was discussed not long ago as follows:
 There is always a complaint concern ing the remssness of society folk in re- spending to invitations when any large entertainment is given, and hostesses would really be struck with amazement if they should hear from all whom they remembered to ask to their functions so general has this discourtesy become. And with invitations to home wedding or wedding reception, there is even greater rudeness. In the latter case it is often due to ignorance of the demands of conventionality rather than to willful | impoliteness or negligence. It is not necessary to acknowledge an invitation to the church only, although 1t is courteous to send ones card to show that the invitation has been received. But it is enexcusabe not to reply to an invi- tation to the wedding reception or to a home wedding, which. of course, includes the reception or breakfast which follows. The reason is obvious. It is necessary for the hostess to know how many she has to provide for In ordering the sup per- and unless she receives answers to her invitations the whole invited list has to be counted upon, and that entails an unnecessary waste
 The remarkable side of this negligence concerning invitations is the fact that the very hostesses who often complain about it are in turn careless about re-
  And so it goes.