SOCIAL CHANGES IN LONDON.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12913, 2 March 1906, Page 7

SOCIAL CHANGES IN LONDON.

(Ey Lady Violet G:evis.'e.!

An examination of s:;cia! change.--- :s----worth making. lor the::- tic::J denotes the national tendency. I'laiisiy, tl:-r charges of the last twenty-five years have been i:i the direction of democracy and ccsincpciitauism, of absence of dignity, stale, and style with which earlier agef* were imbue i. the emancipation of women, and the abolition of any trammels that jnevent the free development of individual liberty. No small section of high society can ; now- give the law, issue edicts, and" ano- j gantry dictate even :o their equals. The position of leader of society bus 'become a sinecure if not a misnomer. No one woman attains to the importance of a salon, or'can icsuie the devoted attendance of her satellites. Society is broken up into innumerable sets, incoherent and nnfusable. Card leaving, once a formidable duty, has almost ceased. . Ladies who used to spend afternoons driving round leaving cards prefer now to pass the time in .playing games, and engage a messenger to shower their pasteboards, at stated times, upon their acquaintances. In the same way, visiting is discouraged. Women call on their bosom friends at odd times, early in the morning, in their bedrooms, or their boudoirs. Solemn visiting as a duty in one's best clothes is reserved for suburbia or ihe provinces; London will have none of it. People " run in *' on their way hither or thither, but refuse to call fruitlessly. Letter writing costs time and trouble, so it is dispensed with, rendezvous are arranged on the telephone, guests invited to dinner, and intimate conversation carried on by the aid of this convenient instrument. Bridge and motors have effected a bloodless revolution as | important as many a hard fought victory on the battlefield. Days passed in scouring the country or playing at a game as engrossing as it is scientific cannot be filled up with all the trifles that satisfied our simple ancestors. Our amusements have become serious work. The result is seen in the unpopularity of large dinnerparties and long meals, m the unfashionableness of politeness, and the dislike to irksome observances.

Flat, and restaurant life have become a necessity to most of ns, the one reacting on the other, so that it is difficult to say whether flats have acclimatised restaurants or restaurants flats. The problem of domestic service is at the bottom of both most probably, but whereas thirty years ago there was scarcely a public diuingplace in London where a lady could go, now ladies .-done take their meals, in company only of one cf their own sex. without comment or annoyance. . This system of palatial eating houses h:is amongst- other things revolutionised the wine trade. People who entertained in their own houses drank much larger quantities of wine, prided themselves on the quality of their cellar, and bought it ftom their own respectable English wine merchant, whereas the restaurant keeper imports his wine direct and wholesale from the foreign growers, and charges his clients such deterrent- prices a.s to limit the consumption. Smoking, too, has affected the wine trade, pec-pie cannot smoke and drink, and- even womea smoke now. not a little, but persistently and habitually.

Church parade is a new institution, and a means of advertisement, but- T doubt if it implies more fervent religion. Many of those who appear in the Park have not beer- inside the sacred edifice at all. thus adding one more to the already long list •■> f -:h;uns with which the conventions of crdinarr life are shackled.

Theatres and places of amusement have increased until the habit of going out- in the evening has become ingrained in the nation, and the eusto mot matinees enables the old, the delicate, and the children to develop into ardent- playgoers and ttncritical audiences. Far. indeed, arc the days when people settled down in the winter "to line horns of serious reading and needlework, when a book of history was set "asick- for family leading, and const-ienti-cuvlv read aloud by the father or the mother.

The family of the period lives much scattered. And that, perhaps, is the gre:-:r*t change of all. Where unity mean! force, unity no»v sp--l!y ennui. Without doubt this emu?u-:pai'o-.; is chiefly due to women. Women's clubs, which speaker-, i-mfessional w«nien. women travailing a'or-e a!! over the wo; Id. playiug athletic pine', sitting on the tops- of omr.ib«jvrs. Mid at home an Heartily ;t.s n;e». Soch things, n g-eneratkn ago. would have beej impossible.