SOCIAL INNOVATIONS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 430, 12 February 1909, Page 3

SOCIAL INNOVATIONS.

, In the- question of invitations; writes Ella' Hepworth Dixon in tho " Ladies' Pictorial," woman does, as'/she pleases, but no man born; is audacious; enough- to change the mysterious rites: and rituals' peculiar to good. society./ Only: the other, day, tho-wife of tho Prime Minister gave a luncheon party, to which'women came without their husbands, and husbands without their wives. For some years past it has been _an understood, thing that attractive and. witty-ladies were' riot expected to/refuse every invitation merely because: their/spouses were/ already' engaged, but this is the first entertainment of any .importance at which no ojie except the host and. hostess had' a legal partner present/ '. If the idea/circulates, -as'it probably will/ society ■Will be a: great deal more amusing thai it -is at present. ;/ - // /' : - / After ; all, v why should a married, pair always go out, two and:two,, like animals entering the ark?. Seeing that they have the pleasure of each other's company, year in and •year out, at theiri- own .dinner-table, why must' theyinvariably; go out togother to sit at; other: people's 'festive boards? /Moreover, few people are at their best in the presence of' their immediate relations, who judge them, occasionally, with too severe an eye. Men, particularly, are apt to. be mute when their lawful wiveip are sitting opposite them. So. we. may. find, if the new. fashion becomes .popular, that little Major Dumber, who always sat mumcbance, is, when he is by himself, quite ■a • garrulous and amusing person, and that the/ meek Lady Mouseton (when' the baronet .is not there) is quite/capable of setting/the stable .in. a roar. /..' /,/. :;j■ .. •' / 'But'other social change's are taking 'place this autumn which cannot fail to striko tho most/casual. observer. : Tho craze for waterdrinking, at meals has obliged people to intent a more elegant word than the dreadful locution - "teetotaller^",, and/.''hydropath". is the newest, title which -abstainers from wine bestow upon themselves / Another ; custom which:/is: creeping in is that of .'having the dinner menu written, on' tiny stone or , marble slabs, chips from some world-famous: monument' - being, used ; by-.; preference./ One I had recently opposite- my plate/was a scrap from the Taj Mahal./ Soon we shall not be content to sjt down to dinger unless 'our menu is' inscribed ,on a: mosaic from St. Mark's, a chipping from the. Par-. :thenon,/or a slicing/from Trajan's Arch. ,: If this idia- should/ ever .be 'popularised., in America,:. it • would mean the entire/ disappearance of all the'famous monuments of the world, for no Vandal ever /equalled those from the other side of the Atlantic. Another pleasing result for hostesses /'of the. present modes is that several more 'people can ,be _ placed at ■; a dinner-table than formerly owing to the scantiness of .ladies', dresses. .A fashionable : woman in evening dress takes up as much space as . a rolled-up umbrella, and if ' she is apt to wear things like comets in her hair, that does not affect the .number of' chairs which ; can now be placed for guests. One wonders what people did when huge crinolines wero the fashion, and how hostesses contrived to entertain all their friends , in'a season whon eivery'lady present/ took up some ten square feet ', of space! The hoop,' indeed, may have been a ..benefactor .in-disguise, for it is certain that rooms could not have contained tho same number of persons' as are now congregated in Mayfair .drawing-rooms, nor, with 1 petticoats distended' to' twelve or ~ fifteen feet,' could it . have been possible, to live: in feverish, tumultuous, strenuous: existence which is the feminine lot to-day.