The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-30
For Sale by E. 6. Fowler and
 F. '. Hunter.
RATIONAL NEW
 YEARS CALLING

For some reasons 1t is a pity the good old custom of making New Years calls dropped out. Like almost everything else in this rapid country, it was overWorked and so had to expire. Men used to go In herds to house after house where their women acquaintances lived to pay their respects. On the theory that man, the masculine creature. is before all stufhng animal, fashion required that at each place wine, punch, coffee, sandwiches, salads and Heaven knows what else should be served. Fashion also required that at each house men should eat some thing. Now, man Is not altogether stuffing animal-not quite, that is-and the consequences of his trying to ac- commodate his capacity to the hospitality of his lady friends were sometimes dis astrous. Man in spite of New Year s Day good resolutions ate and drank too much.
 Sometimes among the so called lower classes and even once In awhile among those who thought themselves of the su- perior folk the eatings and drinkings de- generated into revels and fights. The expense of the New Years call making observance also became such that many women could i'll afford 1t, and so 1t was abandoned. Men and women, unless they belonged to the same family or unless they were in love with each other. once more herded apart on New Years Day.
 One of the unfortunate features of present day alleged civilization Is the almost utter lack of rational social in- tercourse between men and women. They have drifted apart and differentiated un- til they no longer really sympathize with or even understand each other, not even on the plane of that courtship and mar vxrh oh in ha Huhf nf false ideal has come to be looked as the only bond of union between them.
 This false ideal has wrought i'll for the race. Without woman the average man gravitates back toward the brute state; without man woman becomes nar- row, cranky, set in her ways and ment- ally almost everything she should not be. It was never meant that men and wo- men should flock apart from each other. Let us make man in our image, after our likewise. and let them have domin- ion." Observe, 1t was not let "him" have dominion, neither her." but let them have dominion. Men and women were spirits before they were put into our bodies, and on the spiritual plane there is a sex influence uplifting to both. The meeting of the sexes on an intellectual and social basis Is greatly helpful to each. Woman becomes stronger. man be- comes gentler. Cannot the old custom of men making New Years calls on women be revived in a new and improved edition?
 The 1st of January Is one of the rare secular days when American men are not engulfed in business. On that day once more let them make New Years calls, not to stuff and guzzle. of old they thought they were forced to do. but for that one day to cultivate the rare flower of good womens friendship and scent its perfume. There is renewing of the life and soul in the perfume of that flower. Of old 1t was the wont for women to boast of the number of New Years calls they had received. of men to boast of the number they had made. The new and the right New Years call will be made only on few and wholly for the pleas ure 1t gives to both man and woman. SUSAN MERIVALE.