The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-22

the other extreme. Dinners are 80 hurried
that there Is time neither for food nor for
conversation.
Il saw a dinner served his winter so
quickly that the women eft the table ex-
aotly forty-fve minutes after they had
sat down in spite of the eight courses. That
CELEBRITY was all right. There was a variety
show coming on after dinner and we got
started at about 1920. There was more
supper at II and we got home in good sea-
con.
Dinners are hurried now when there
Is nothing to follow. | saw four men serve
dinner for twelve persons the other night
and do it 20 quickly there was scarcely
time to nibble at the courses, and there
was no chance to get started on any sub
ject. 1 don't believe we could have been
half an hour at the table. The coffee was
of course served in the drawing room. That
gave us almost two weary hours, as 1t was
too early for anybody to go home
There are other causes than bridge for
the popularity of the short dinner to-day,
Women who go out a great deal look upon
dinners as the stiffest OF entertainments,
because they must sit still and confine
themselves to only two mems conversation
After a while dinners grow very wearisome
to those perao rs accustomed to 30 many
OF them and the shorter they can be made
the better for them.
Availability is of course the prevailing
mood OF the day. Cattishness has gone
out Of fashion entirely. The geniality of
the day is not languishing good nature.
but hearty, gushy good feeling, as II 1t
were trying to hide it's own falsity. Now 1t
Is not enough to show that to ones friends,
according to this years experience.
You must even throw down your enc
mics in the l~ovehiest way possible" said a
woman who keep, up with every social
change. Every pill is gilded nowadays.
Last week a woman | loathe invited me
fectly well | wouldn't come and only asked
me because l had her at my house early
10 the winter.
"Of course il I'd written as I felt about
have made up The letter; but l had to be
in the style, so / wrote her q dear, gushy
little note, saying ] was so terribly sorry,
but ] had another engagement. She knew
i didn't, and so long as | declined the invi-
tation and didn't go to her, that was enough.
She understood the meaning Of 1t oil just
as well as if | had sworn at her
Another phase Of fashionable life Is more
striking now at the end Of the social season
than it ever was before. This is the ten
dency to ignore morals, or at least to affect
to, in the enjoyment of a persons social
qualities.
This new affectation, a woman Of very
straight principles was saying in tones OF
depreciation, wa shown very. well by the
remark Of a woman l met at luncheon the
other day.
II think she's a lovely woman she
began, referring to u very much discussed
divorced woman. And | really am per-
fectly devoted to her. Whether she's a
good woman or not l don't know; but she's
q sweet one
Now, the speaker wa a mother of ire
p~roachable morals and manners, The
thought Of feminine Improperly would
really have Mortified her; out she wanted
to be in the style and pretend entire in
difference to the morals OF this woman,
Half Of the women who talk that way now
adays merely do 1t to be in the fashion.
They are as puritanical at heart as most
good American women"