MODERN ENTERTAINING.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 24, 27 July 1907, Page 11

MODERN ENTERTAINING.

Home-or.tcrtaining, is looked upon as moro 01^ less of a trouble lv these days of fuss and Hurry, whan, even if wo ceo not rushod with engagements and plcr.ty to ' do, wo hko to prclond we aro (wrilos j "Chrittina" in the Melbourne weakly). In j Sydney homo entertainments aro growing ; less and Ices frequent with each j-ucceedin-j year. Entertaining r bread has' boon reduced to a fine art. Ladies give tea parties (to eiow music) on.fixrd H.ays at hotels or cafes. If tho 1-nrty U to bo "mixed," you first give a litllo dinner at tomo hotel, take your- guests to tho theatre, and then on to a cafe for a "snick" (which n<J ono wants in tho lomH). That is tho routine. J'j>ch party is like every other party, aisi the host and hostess of ncce.sity very much in tho background, and not called upon for any great conversai.onal or other effort. There's tho point that commands iUelf. riio givers of tho entertainment ceo afford to look cheerful, for thoy aro not bored to death looking lifter thoir guests (who aro fully occupied with tho provender and tho play). It is tho samo old menu sml tho same old piece, but what docs thrt matter? Housekeepers say thoy daro not. on account of fho servants, invito "extra" pooplo to dinner or oven aftcrnocn tea. Coolr and Mary will never put up with it, as thoy, "(i:dut engage for company. Trutji is, tho heads of tho house "canna bo fashed" wilh "company" themselves. They thoroughly beliovo in tho modern axiom that "tho way to make home happy is to lcavo it. Moals uro so often taken "out," that the sorvants naturally como to regard 1 "master and missus" as intruders if they do elect to spend sun evening at homo.

.Londoners are laughing hugely (writes a London correspondent, on 32th April) over a play which has just been put upon the stage of the Court Theatre, entitled "Votes .for Women." Ifc is a dramatic "tract, written with great fekill by Miss Elizabeth Robins^ an ardent suffragist, to promote thevotes-for-women movement. The heroine is supposed to have lived ten years ago, under the protnctipn of the Hon. Geoffrey Stonor. They separate over the delicate question of motherhood. When they meet again, Stonor is the coming Prime Minister, engaged to a pretty girl, who learns the story of 'Stonor's life. She insists that Geoffrey shall offer marriage to the heroine, but the heroine lefuses him. The cause is everything, and in the end the lady induces Stonor to decline joining the Cabinet unless the Government will consent to give votes to women. This is agreed to, and everybody lives happily afterwards. The chief interest in the play is a very realistic scene of a Trafalgar-square demonstration. No detail has been forgotten. The speakers are ranged on the plinth of Nelson's Column, and there is the mixed crowd, just as one has seen it a score of times. The h-less labour leader makes a perfect speech of his type. A pert schoolgirl speaker for the suffrage twists her insolent little nose at . the noisy rabble before her There is the young man Avith the. cigarette, and his hands in his pockets, shouting, "Why don't you go hdme to the babby?" There is the old sardonic newspaper-seller ; the man in the shiny hat, who resents any criticism of John Burns or the London County Council ; and there is the man with the broken bowler, who mtumuro "Drunk again !" at intervals, t and chuckles at his own humour. The policeman, too, is there, good-tempered and watchful ; and the little Scotsman, who is never allowed to say more than four wojds. I We have had nothing like this scene on the London stage for yeais. The Daily Mail euggenls that overy nctor in ft ouj;ht to Imve his uuiue og the playbill. ,