The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-02-28

entire winter. and this type of guest.
though he may be prominent In
finance, politics or the professions, is
so common that charges are con-
stantly being registered against him
The up to date woman of mature years
is usually a good talker and she is be-
coming more and more insistent in her
demands that a man furnish her men,
tai stimulation in his conversation
with her, and she has been demanding
with greater and greater posi-
tiveness that her hostess cater to this
intellectual taste of hers and use some
discretion In the matter OF assigning
her to a dinner partner whose buin
processes work round and round like
the record on a photograph.
She no longer pretends to tolerate
one who revels In monologue and she
absolutely refuses to give up an hour
or more of her time listening to him.
anchored to a chair at a friends dinner
table. 1t has become a common thing
for hostesses to be berated over the
telephone on the morning following a
dinner party by these long suffering
feminine intellectuals who score them
heartily for booming them o. the fate
of sitting for several hours beside "A
man who talked inanities and rambled
on endlessly about himself. AS pro-
spective guests ONE now frequently
bind the woman inviting them to
dinner to a hard and fast promise that
certain men shall not be allotted them
for partners before they accept the
invitation.
on the other hand, there are several
types of women that The man who
dimes out habitually is equally eager
to avoid. He has special tas' e. for
certain brands of conversation and
his objections and complaints add 10
the complications that are appalling
the average nm who has a reputa-
ton for hospitality to maintain.
First, there is the woman who has
acquired among her associates the
name of being clever.
MANY a man is stricken with a
chill when his hostess effusively in
forms him: You are to taxi in Miss
Brown. | know you will like her.
She Is tremendously clever He hates
mental gymnastics with his meals and
the prospect bf following a woman
who has been branded in society for
cle%verness fills him with dismay.
He has been too busy b. keep we'll
informed on current events. so he
doesn't know whether eugenics Is a
recent play OF a new kind OF cockTail.
Consequently he loses his head when
h sparkling parsonage whom a cruel
hostess DEGREES that he take into din
ner launches forth on a dissertation
OF Maeterlinck, sociology or suffrage.
and before the end Of the meal she
longing TO strange her becomes ~
great as to be almost beyond re-
straint. He vows to be revenged on
his hostess by never coming TO her
house again and is consumed with
envy If the man across the table who
has drawn the fuzzy little debutante
who only giggles and smiles and il
mentally absorbed in her gown.
or he may he delighted in the draw
ing room with his prospective part
ner, during the few moments before
dinner. because she has clear eyes.
a fresh voice. a frivolous nose and
n misleading dimple which conviuces
him that when she speaks her talk
Will BE- rather restful nonsense. Her
cleverness has never been herallci
and the lightning dcsCendS Que f "A
clear sky, for before the fish course
us finished his confidence has de-
parted. his collar is wilted and he
recognizes the fact that, metaphors
cally speaking. he has been turned
inside gu and that he is a deplorably
bad loser in the conversational contest
that his demure looking partner has
i~naugurate3. HIS Crouch Is again reg
istered against the hostess. whom he
feels should have warned him
Then there are the ome in whose
conversational system the terminal
facilities are absolutely inadequate
and sometimes totally lacking and
who just talk endlessly and aim
lessly until the people who know them
cease to mind it or care, hut the man
who has one of them thrown upon his
hands for a couple of hours by an un-
scrupulous hostess. with every avenue
Of sea shut off, harbors a gricv-
me that prejudlces him against ac-
ceptiug invitations to her formal din
uers in future.
\ young aran with a prophetic soul
has a mental vision Of a g%arrulous
elderly lady in the years to come
when the pretty girl at his side, whom
he has been predisposed to regard
with sentimental favor, begins to pratt
tie and as he listens to her voice
babbling necessarily through course
after course. his disillusiOns affect his
digestion and he goes away with pessi-
mistic Views of matrimony that 1t
takes a long time to dissipate.
But fortunately the majority of men
are not given to Specializing on the
future at a dinner party, and abso-
lutte vaCuity of mind assumed for the
occasion V the situation for an
American, but an Englishman shows
marked manifestations of apprchen-
sion when seated beside a girl If
this type during a long course meal,
The absolute inability to stop when
once started on a line of conv, rsatlon
is the 6esetting sin Of the majority
of girls during their first few seasons
out and to attempt to switch or side
track them, or to suggest transfer
points would only result in ditChing
a friendship, something that the easy
going male American hates to do.
But nevertheless his resentment
against his hostess is very well de-
fined FIR Harvesting him to the neon
siderate young person who sits beside
him and insists on |disregarding all
Spppl law regulations right nf way