FOR WOMEN ONLY

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 20

FOR WOMEN ONLY

SOME AMERICAN PARTIES,

An American described to me the other day the parties that are given by them for one sex, and she declared that they were a success, says a writer in the "Daily Mail." Not only picnics, but also luncheon and dinner parties. In a small country town like that of "Main street;" where the women know all the men and are each marriedto one of them, such parties might be pleasant. The possibilities of fresh'and living combination being exhausted, the women, might be thrown back on each other for companionship ; but to give a successful dinner for women only in a big town is a difficult matter. In the first place wo^ men do not herd together like men. They each stand at the centre of life, while man the wanderer adventures in little armies and sits afterwards—all that remains of him—by the campfires to tell over his fights. In the second place, "charming women like to meet men, for only men pay that tribute to their charm which is the proof that they possess it. These things .admitted, however, it is possible to give a successful party "for women only" even in England, but— goodness!—how careful we have to be in the selection of the guests. The interesting woman is she who has. done something, who can talk from a ripe experience, and who has lived—not the woman who has only looked on and picked up her opinions and information from newspapers and books. The most terrible of all people to meet socially is the woman who thinks it the right thing. to talk to an artist of any kind about art. She is almost always uncritical, also she knows nothing of the matter from the inside, and the result for the poor. artist is irritation beyond bearing with civility. But if to the feast for women only women of affairs are asked, these are likely to get as much pleasure out of the party as might the same number of intelligent men. I remember giving a dinner of this sort,, and, we all .told of the days when we had not known, where our next meal was to come from, of the shifts wo had been put to, and the way in which gradually we had made good. It was a riotous .party, lasting until .serious and sober husbands came from their clubs to take their housemates away.' '"-I wonder whether when American women get together: they do their entertaining as. carefully and—get as much fun out of it? .:/...■