A SOCIAL CALL

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 60, 12 March 1927, Page 20

A SOCIAL CALL

CAMBRIDGE VISITS NEW YOBK.

"We met our hostesses directly we landed,".wrote one of twenty Cambridge undergraduates paying a social visit to New York, to the "Daily Mail." "We aro now marvelling at the wonderful houses we are living in. One of us was so occupied in gazing around him that he fell down four flights of marble stairs, to everyone's amusement. Soon after landing we attended a dinner, at which 40 people were present, given by Mr. Vanderlip at Pierres, and this was followed by our coming-out dance at the Ritz-Carlton. The 600 people there rather awed us, and especially did the presence of three times as many men as girls. But the astonishing thing was that the extra men hung about in groups all over the ballroom floor, leaving little room to dance. They call these men "stags," the whole group the 'stag line.' Whenever a 'stag' wants a dance he merely walks up to a couple dancing and takes the girl away from her partner—a curious custom which, seems hardly cricket to us. We never had much chance to talk as after about 20 steps wo were 'cut in' by someonj else. If we were lucky wo got halfway round the room with a girl.

"The whole show was very bewildering, especially as the 25-pieee band never stopped once till supper, and we did not get a chance to ask the girls what it was all about. Ono does not sit out unless one is very friendly with a girl, and the girls dance steadily from 11 p.m. to 4 or 5 a.m. without a break except for supper. At supper when dark bottles with goldfoil round the top appeared, we rose to drink to and pass a vote of confidence and approval m the American girl, only to find that it was sweet eider. One of us, nicknamed 'Shorty,' passed a vote of censure by himself on the height of girls, but, for the rest of us, it was a treat to dance with really tall girls 611 are small com Parecl with us.' We find tho girls delightful. They aro so full of life, so natural and jolly that we felt really quite at ease almost nt once. Perhaps. it, is because they all do more than their' share of thr talking, and.seem to be so interested in us. tho Englishmen. We we're surprised by the dresses—full ankle-length skirts, tight waists, and no backs, and the dancing—well, tho old-fashioned c .asse aud skip-step is very much the thing. The Charleston died ages ago. A tea reception was given for us Many debutants were invited to meet us and we had our first talk with tho American girl in her home. It appears that tho two million surplus women do not exist here, and that men are much more numerous than women in the social whirl. And so the present system exists, and on it the girls base'their popularity and attractivoness by the number of 'cuts' they get. We a"ro being most wonderfully entertained "