Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-26

ing them up. Why. my dear, she is forty
five years old, if she is day, and has two
maria geable daughters. and hasn't learned
yet how to wear gown-and she never
will learnt"
The society dowager. by long experience
has become skilled in the ways of human
nature, and so she is peculiarly fitted to
fill the role, which she does with alacrity.
of inspector of parvenus and nouveau richie
separating the sheep from the goats, so to
speak, and marking for passage through
the golden social gate those who to her
practiced eyes, possess in sufficient degree
the qualifications which will render them
worthy members of the set.
But if she takes pleasure in sitting out
the climbers of an afternoon. she finds keen
delight of an evening in the celebrating.
rather strenuous and diplomatic task of
matchmaking.
AS frequently as It is otherwise her serv-
ices as matchmaker are enlisted by per-
turbed mothers of young girls of marriage
able age. Such a conspiring mother has
her heart set on her daughters marrying
Jack De Puyster, say. Her daughter, Oh
the other hand, simply hates Jack and
shows a decided prediction for Percival
Jones, who her mother tearfully holds, Is
Jacks inferior socially and financially, and
has told Pauline so, but with no effect. But
there is thing that may win Pauline
over to mothers way of thinking. Pauline
can't stand poor Jack around the house,
and she won't ask him in, and when she
hears that she has been invited to re-
ception she trumps up an excuse to be
away and she does not get to know what
a nice boy Jack is. But If they could only
be brought together in some home where
she would not suspect anything Interior
and see each other quite frequently, why
Crowded Days Work.
The society dowager understands and is
sympathetic and brings them together by
means of innocently worded little notes
inviting them to dinners, the opera, small
dances, the theater and other social func-
tions. But, shrewd woman of the world
that she usually is she does not force Jack,
personally or in small talk. on Pauline
Past master in the art of marrying off girls
the last OF her four having been comfort
ably, not to say brilliantly, paired year
or two prior to her husbands death-she
knows enough to let affairs of the heart
take a course seemingly all their own,
though, for all that, they are guided by a
power unseen in hundred various ways.
1t Is told of one of the best known dow
ayers of New York's four hundred that
apparently by merely throwing open her
salon to young people, she has brought
about many a match that parents longed
for but despaired of. In one year alone,
and that not very far lost In the past, this
self-same dowager got the credit of marry
ing off five of the seasons buds to men
who, at one time, were known to be more
or less distasteful to the young women
who are now their doting helpmeets.
Not all the dowagers can boast to their
confidential friends of such a record; still,
the dowager who has not the matchmak-
ing ability highly developed Is rare, and
when the society gossps get together one Is
pretty apt to hear that this one brought
about the Jones-Smith wedding, and that
one was certainly responsible for the match
between Margaret Van Twiller and Harry
Orsten and so on through the entire list
of dowagers. Small wonder then that
mother when she has daughter (or a son.
either, for that matter) who shows signs of
being foolish" appeals straightway to a
dowager to take strategic command and Is
content to let her work out her ends mainly
by automatically associating the young
lady with the young man the mother ia
vors, until they seem to belong to each
other, and then do.
Thus it will be seen. the society dow
ayers days work begins early and closes
only with the end of the little supper after
theater or opera. one Of her staple devices
for bringing Pauline unconsciously and by
easy stages to the frame of mind that Jack