The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-10-08
PATRIcIA,s LETTER TO POLLY

Lear FoiIy:
I have had a wonderfully delight
full week. Surely there is some spe-
cial charm about society here-some-
thing just a bit different from So
ciety anywhere else in the world. It
is not that it is cosmopolitan, though
that it is, too. But so are many other
cities I have visited.
Since have travelled about the
world, and come back home, to find
awaiting me that cordial friendliness
which so warns ones heart, I have
tried to analyze this charm a bit,
and have compared the atmosphere
of things social here to the same
phase of life in other cities I have
stopped in my peregrinations about
the globe.
Here, it seems to me, catch hint
of the same exotic, dolce far niente
spirit that one finds more or less en-
phasized in Honolulu and to very
great extent IN India. Perhaps it is
found more or less everywhere that
the sun shines holly. But there one
finds life, at times, both too brilliant
for the spirit and too soft for the
soul-especially is the life in Homo
lulu richly colorful, and in Bombay
brilliantly cruel. Here we seem to
find the brightness without the hard
ness that SO often goes with glitter,
and the rich, warm, delightful cor
diality in every social expression,
without the cloying qualities which
sometimes render things social as
soul-destroying as some subtle spiri-
tual absinthe.
All Of which means to say that /
am trying to express to you, very
haltingly and poorly, but my sincere
best, that while find society here
very much changed, it still savors
of that southern hospitality which
once made it famed, and that the
new standards which have come to
be a part of things social in many
cities have not yet obtained to de-
stroy the social fabric here, and that,
while / find a certain brightness,
one might almost say, social bril-
liancy in the inner circle, which large
ly spells service, it is the brilliancy
that goes always with the cosmopoli-
tan, who, having seen much of life,
is tolerant rather than hard in esti-
mating human nature and endeavors.
intellectually is not yet fashion
able in the smart set that writes $50
ciety" with a big "S"-not even
abroad, where culture most obtains.
In New York one finds the smart
women much engaged in public work,
and perhaps this is most noticeably
lacking here, where one finds very
few of the women who are socially
prominent, identified, for instance,
with suffrage or doing any very
active war relief work. Where in
New York one finds the leaders of
fashion presiding at suffrage meet
ings, or taking leading part in 9TH
err public endeavors, here these ac-
tivities are very largely undertaken
by the club women, the domestic wo-
men, the professional and the bust
ness women.
Of course this does not mean that
women in society here do not go in fo1
charity, and are not abreast with the
times. What / mean to convey is
that it Is not considered particularly
smart to be active in such work, while
IN New York, inWashington, and even
In New Orleans and Louisville, the
smartest women lead in public move.
ments. Which shows the trend of the
times and emphasizes the fac. tina,
the serious business of living has
seeped its way under the foundations
of society and is overturning man,