DEFUNCT CUSTOMS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7057, 19 February 1910, Page 14

DEFUNCT CUSTOMS

"What a number of customs that used to be part and parcel of the social system are being just now either much modified or are fast disappearing altogether. Paying afternoon calls, for instance, and conversation after dinner, havo been completely elbowed out by bridge. Dining out, unless one is a bridge player, is reduced to. a. minimum, «ud those who cannot join in the fashionable game havo to bo content with an invitation to, luncheon where they

•used to (lino. , . Amonc the minor chancres in social DSiiirea. I 'have remarked lately that it is now auite demode for a lady to take the arm of a gentleman under any circumstances whatever, except just for goiiiff in to dinner, and that perfunctory sisn of feminine -weakness will also pro. bablvdisappear very soon. Formerly, after dancinic. and when porn;? in to trapper at a hall, younp ladies always put their hand throueh the arm of their -partner: hut now "nous avona change tout cela," with a vengeance, for if anyone diid such a thintrin an up-to- - dato ballroom they would be' looked upon na (in the phraseology of the day) not quite all there. How very aeldom, too, one sees a man I in these daya hat in hand in a lady's I drawinjr-room! Up to quite a short time oro elderly snntlemen who went inK parties inva,riably walked in "cruel, hat" under arm; while every man, whether youn« or old, went up to the draw-inß-room hat in. hand, wnen coins to visit a lady. .. , it , _*. It used to bo said that this custom differentiated a social call from that of a doctor or la-wyer. The -practice had its inconveniences, for there was always a dancer of an. all-too-heavy foot beine planted in tho middle of one's brand new Bilk "topper" by an absent-minded fellow visitor. Anyhow, whether for good or evil, the custom has disappeared liko many others. In fact, it seems altoRethor as if we was in a transition stage as regards- the "convenances of society. "Which of them, I wonder, will • bo tho next to go?—"Tho Gentlewoman.