Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-27
PROBLEMS OF HOSTESS
THE INCREASING DIFFICULTY
OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS.
Persons Who Accept Invitations and
Then Do Not Come-Dances
Cost Much Money.
Firm the London Man.

IL
So much Is heard today OF the decay
OF entertaining that one is led to inquire
II there are any particular reasons that
would lead to neglect of older methods
AMI customs by the modern hostess. II
there Is a tendency to dispense with the
conventional methods of entertaining
when invitations were dispatched many
weeks In advance 1t must be remembered
that the motor car and even the telephone
are making considerable changes In our
customs. Since it has become quite easy
to keep an engagement forty or fifty
miles away, there is not the need for a
fixed season in London that there used to
be, and the telephone makes for much
more elasticity In social arrangements.
Nevertheless, one Is tempted to think
that want Of energy has a very great
deal to do with it. People are bored to a
far greater extent than they were fifteen
or twenty years ago.
The young man of the present day Il
decidedly Stacker" than his father OF
grandfather was. He doesn't want to dc
this or that 1t Is a bore to dance: it il
a bore to make himself civil and polite to
those about him.
Young Men Bored.
If one asks any hostess Of the present
day why she does not give balls OF
dances. nine times out Of ten she will
complain Of the difficulty Of getting mer
to attend these functions. They may look
in" for supper, but they care little OF
nothing for the pretty row Of wall flow
ers" that so often sadly decorate q ball
room.
Can one wonder If the hostess asks why
She should spend so much trouble on un.
appreciative friends and acquaintance:
modern ball is q very costly and trou.
blesome affair. If a hostess has q house
sufficiently large to ask couple Of hun
dred friends to come and dance, she may
have to issue at least 800 invitations tt
make sure Of filling her rooms and giving
the entertainment the air Of go which
is SO necessary.
1t must also be remembered that very
few men take the trouble to answer 9
ball invitation. and 1t Is for this reason
that many hostesses underline the letters
R. S. V. p. three or four times in red ink
Even when the invitation is accepted II
does not at all follow that the recipient
will appear on the scene. Something bet
ter may turn up. Another hostess may
take 1t ipto her head to give a dance the
same evening-possibly by verbal invita-
ton only, or 1t may be visiting card
"
dance; then the poor hostess who has is.
sued her cards weeks beforehand and In.
vited her friends to come and make merry
will find herself neglected and with 8
band playing to a half-empty room
Cost of Balls.
AS 1 have already said, a ball is q very
expensive affair and often costs between
800 and E6OO. There Is a band to be en-.
gagged. supper ordered for an unknown
quantity, and flowers are nowadays g
very heavy item in the expenses Of such
an entertainment.
There are not nearly so many concerts
or musical parties given in private houses
as there used to be. l may be wrong, but
fancy the costly entertainments Of this
kind that were started some fifteen years
ago have quite frightened ordinary host
esses out Of the field. How often has one
heard or read of some function of this
kind costing as much as 91,OO0 or G2,OOO
where q prima donna has been engaged at
a fee Of 500 guineas, with other artists on
an equally high scale. Dinner parties are
late reign, and no doubt restaurant life Is
responsible for this. It is easier to ask a
dozen friends to dine at some great hotel
and leave the menu to a waiter than it is
to order dinner at home. Nevertheless,
although it is all very well to bid casual
acquaintances to dine at a reasturant,
with a band drowning all attempts u
conversation. many people, one Is sure,
would appreciate the honor OF being bid
roundings.
Dinner-table conversation. moreover, Is
likely to be lost art il the fashion for
music lasts much longer.