STAND UP, YE SOCIAL LIONS
Mrs. Peattie Arraigns the Sickly Forms That Sin From Nature's Rule.
A Few Clear Cut Expressions Regarding Omaha's Society In Common With That of Everywhere.
The San Francisco Arganoant, the other day, printed a London letter on the subject of the manners of the society young man of London. It was a severe but probably a just arrangement it says:
The germ of unhappiness in marriage, I believe to consist entirely in the utter luxity, not to say the brutality, of modern manners. In fact, they shine by their absences. Beyond the mechanical fact that. man lifts his hat to a lady in the street, or gets up when she leaves the room. what distressing acts of politeness is be guilty of? seventh century young man thinks he confers a favor on his hostage if he accpets her invitation to dinner, generally keeping her waiting for the answer as long as he possibly can. In case something more agreeable might happen to turn up. If he goes to a dance he takes very good care not to arrive till supper time, completely ignoring the smiling-faced. nicely gowned young ladies who are anxiously awaiting his advent He wisely avoids asking the plain daughters of the house to dance, as he labors abscense of beauty-looks upon it, indeed, as a personal insult - selects a few of the prettiest young married women for the recipients of his favors, lounges away an hour in a sitting room, takes a couple of turns in a walk, settles himself down to an excellent supper (for a smart young man never visits a house where he is not quite sure of the excellence of the cook and the wine) and walks home jauntily in the morning air, with overcoat throw around and bat poised at the back of the head in the serene confidence that he has passed a well spent evening.
Should some misguided person venture to introduce a young lady to him, however nice or attractive, he promptly, after the formality of presentation, turns on his heels and walks away.
"Such cheek!" he mutters under his breath. "to introduce a girl to me when I know such heaps of them already."
As to card-leacing after dinners or parties he considers that an exploded relic of the past. His presence at the entertainment was honor enough, and say further acknowledgment he leaves to the struggling young man who is not yet smart enough to be uncivil. A friend of mine, a mother and hostess herself half-fainting with heat and fatigue once in her early days of rhaperonage, whispered to her daughter: "Tell your partner I should like to go down to tea." To which the well-trained damsel promptly responded: "Mamma if I were to tell him that, he would never ask me to dance again!" So the patient mother had to wait until some grizzly-bearded friend of her youth, in attendance on his own daughter , took pity on her loneliness and offered her his arm.
Many and bitter are the experiences of chaperons; they must smile and smile ever on the facti
