AFTERNOON TEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 11

AFTERNOON TEA.

WHEN STRONG MEN EAT, TARTS AND TARTARS. Some people do not go to afternoon tea. They are rare, they are eccentric, they are a tiny little set apart, lik^ th* peculiar-looking men Who go "through the city streets "bareheaded. „Aftefaooa' tea drinking? is as general now as if it was obligatory by Act of Parliament, with decapitation as the penalty for noncompliance- with the regulations. Tha people who say that New Zealand*™ are becoming a race of idolaters may sadly debate "why men don't go to chuTch," but there is no cause for discussfon. why men don't go to tea-rooms. They go in droves, in twos and threes, giggling like girls - r --- ,Once afternoon tea. was sacked- to woman, who had , her.. cup. in. her own. home. By 4 o'clock, after arduous hours of mangling, sweeping, lathing the baby; and other tasks incidental to matrimony, she is languid and makes en© kettle sing to her. H>;r sister, with no great bur* den of household' cares, scorns the-pri- x vacy of a home for the tea celebration, and trips to' town, in a lovely hat and a fluffy blouse. She does iiot want any tea particularly, and she is not hungry, biiti she does desire to be in a tea rofcm'. Woman, well dressed, does not like to be alone. Women in chiffon, mousseline -<fo soie, and other gorgeous materials which, soothe the eyes of man, ar.e gregarious anjmals (dainty, higher, angelic animals with 'souls), and instinct' leads them to' congregate in a tea-room, Anyone who stands' near a plantation at sunset may hear a wonderful cErping by the spanrrows. , It is inarticulate, but joyful. Very much J,he same chatter, on a magnifiedi scale, fills a Wellington tea-room at 4 o'clock. - The jingle of cups, the incessant, rattle of tongues, makes a chorus heaTd nowhere elst, but heard in great abundance on the spot. Everybody talks, and everybody talks while everybody el»2 is talking. (Listening is done somehow, but the listening is a minor "patter. Woman has two ears for listening ; it is not necessary for her to seal up her two lips in order "to listen. The gossip is more toothsome than the cake. 'Every fresh entrant is scanv ned by all the sitters, judged and found guilty 'of something wrong in the hat or the cut of the skirt. In ,a tea-room the ladies get a better peep at one another's hats than they do even in a church." After allj in a church certain decencies must be observed. Ono cannot look about too much, and criticism must be reserved till after the service, which takos much of the juico out of the orange. But in a tea-room the eyt^ may^ be turned to the right or left with perfect propriety, and tho veidict m^y be brought in hot, on the spot. All is delight till the band begins to play, smothering many a pointed remark. Man does not look very dreadful when he accompanies woman to afternoon tea, but he. is a strange spectacle when hfi goes alone to the cream-guff and Jjjo sugar-lump, and worse when fio" mates his cntty with two or three, other .members of the so-called "stumer sex.'" A representative of the stern sex • looks very meek and mild when contemplating a piece of jam-taut upon .the end of a foik or asking another member whether he takes one or two lumps of sugar in his tea. ' There is 'a "difference in clothes and looks between aftornoon teaitos, but not -in -manner. A man at tea, if he is with a man, is, just the same as a woman with a woman. Ho looks about, he chatters, he 1 makes oyes and riioucs, he friggles -with his eyebrows, he giggles, he criticises. Poor weak man, he cannot play cricket for an afternoon without an "adjournment for tea." The tea-cup is a crutch oh .which 'a tired age leans. Worse js coming. _ Morning , tea at 11 -o'clock or so is seducing man. Sometimes ho flits from his office to" a, refreshment room, but generally the brew is made for him at his place of business. People do not hope now that their children will be born with .\ silver spoon in their mouths j their prayer is for a silver tea-cup.