The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1901-11-17


tender freshness which dilated the eye and
flushed the cheek of their anccstresses.
And yet in some respects the position
of women has greatly improved. They
found early in the century habitual
drunkenness; they will leave sobriety.
They found the coarsest of language and
a flow of oaths on the slightest provoca-
ton; and they leave, outside a certain
very limited set which seems to rejoice in
the uncean and the ambiguous, careful If
slangy speech, in which such thing as a
house pudding. The modern hygienic
comforts and facilities of our houses must
also have their effect; and it is strange
to picture a condition of affairs which
to build the bedrooms all opening one out
of another, the innermost one, which had
no other exit. being inhabited by the
women of the family for their protection
Dinners Too Elaborate.
Our dinners are too long, too hot too
gorgeous, too large and therefore usually
too deadly dull to be enjoyable: but even
if they were perfect in every detail they
could not continue to amuse person who
dimes out every night of his life. Still,
intolerable than those interminable feasts
of roast beef, cygnet or pea chick at
which our grandfather sat, f1anked by
bottles of port and brown sherry, from 3
in the afternoon till they were carried to
bed or perhaps tottered unsteadily into
the presence of the ladies'. They drank,
no doubt. to still the gnawing worm of
boredom, which even then must have had
some power; but now we bear our diSil-
lusions and safety in SoberneSS, If with
depression and languor
1t is said-with what truth I know not
that the abstinence of our ladies of to-day
from the flowing bowl is not SO conspicu-
Gus as that of the men. / trust this is q
libel. But worse than this is the secret
habit of taking drugs-more fatal, If pos
sible. than alcohol, and less easy to de-
tect and control
Another conspicuous change in society is
the worship of wealth and the altered
families on the subject of trade. Dukes,
marquises earls and their female rela-
lions keep shops, issue advertisements of
their wares, and, in the case of the former
display. their. names on a city prospectus
or the bill of a theater without feeling at
all uncomfortable. unless, indeed, their
venture is not financial success. The
whole tone of the social mind has altered
in this respect, and if some antiquated
and semi barbaric ideas have been up
rooted with the tares, much alas! of the
good corn of noblesse oblige has shared
their fate
Short Visits Necessary.
Life in country houses has undergone
perhaps the greatest variation of all, .ow-
ing to railways, telegraphs and the scurry
in which we spend our days. Short visits
are not only customary, but necessary.
where each engagement in succession
overlaps the other and has to be fitted
in almost like Chinese puzzle. 1 am
told that a book which recently appeared,
and which purported to give a realistic
account of the visits of young girl to
a series of country houses, presents a
fair picture of what goes on in certain
set; but, if so, l must honestly declare
that it is not one with which 1 am at all
acquainted.
Then, again, we found Ito continue our
paraphrase of the American professor
private charity; we leave professional
philanthropy. 1 hope I may be forgiven
for saying that 1 consider this one of the
greatest blots on our modern system, for
too often it. hardly affords a decent cloak
for the grossest hypocrisy and self-inter-
est. 1t is utilized, on the one hand by
some to erase stain from their escutch-
con- and by others to advance themselves
either in society or in the more material
search after well paid appointment
Charity for the love of God, and not either
for excitement, gain, or for withdrawing
purposes, is as rare as it is refreshing and
ennobling to witness. The great name,
the brilliant talents the cultured leisure
given by some of our conspicuous men
and women to the cause of the poor and
suffering are beacons to follow and monu-
ments raised for future generations to
keep before their eyes.