HOST AND GUEST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4271, 22 July 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOST AND GUEST.

Is all grades of society, the host is too often the generous simpleton who squanders his money in entertaining his supposed frieiuls, anil the i;uest is the man who fattens at his expense ami laughs at him for his trouUle. lam sure it would puzzle my readers to reniemher many parties they have attended at which some invidious remarks were not made about the ho.st or hostess. If the host and hostess are all right—that is, if he owes no man a copper and is as pure as Elijah, and she is dead-in-life enough to eseai>e ccn3iire--the management of the entcrtainvieut is at fault. Somebody is present who should not hare been invited : others m ho are not invited whose absence is regretted. If nothing else, the viands are at fault. The guest forgets that to him tlio people whose bread he eats should be saereil. anil does not always realise that be is under obligations for hospitality, which he is often either disinclined or unable to return. 1 speak in the masculine gender, because men are frequently more censorious and always more sarcastic than women. Vet women do their share in that direction. 1 remember an instance where, two sisters, while enjoying ;\ friend's hospitality, had occasion to" repair to tlie dressing-room in tiic course of the evening. There, while adjusting tilt- nameless but indispensable accessories, of dress, believing themselves alone, the conversation turned upon the family whose hospitality they were abusing. Those only who have not heard or indulged in the interchange of such gushing confidences need lie told the pungent personalities, mortifying reminiscences and disagreeable fact.-, together with idle gossip and false reports, raked up. Meanwhile, the ladies were not alone. Two little visitors in the family were hovering around the doorway, and attracted by the subject of conversation, settled down, stiller than mice, on a sofa within earshot. As a natural i-oii-(■•eqiieiiee, the sisters were deliberately cut by the lady so ill-naturedly "talked over" the lirst tiiiie she met them in public ; and thus they lost a valuable friend, to their inortilication, a* her position in .society was .superior to their own. Is it not possible that other society friendships have been terminated for Minilar reasons* Not taking into consideration the lituess of things, it is a matter of policy for the guest to outwardly ic.-pect his host, and he who will not do .so should be placed under a social ban.— [Correspondent. J