KILLING THE EVENING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 2609, 4 August 1876, Page 3

KILLING THE EVENING.

{The World, May 10.) Ifc is no injustice to an institution at once fashionablo and vulgarised, innocent in itself, bufc debased in its development; and demoralising in its aoocasories, to say that sooiety has jusfc witnessed one of the most unlovely yet most inovifcable results of the prevailing Rinkomania, and has heard the solemn' warning utteranoes of an English Judge upon the graceless theme. Sir James Hannen has imposed by his weighty words a duty upon Englioh parents, and upon all those who are in a position of any social influence, thafc can only be neglooted at a risk incalculably grave. Whon a Judge speaks of a ohange wbieh has dome over fche habits and manners of sooiety " wifch loathing," fcho ohange consisting of the foot fchafc " women aro now socn ,vith persons and afc places from whom fchoy would havo shrunk," without "anything being thought of it," ono may be quite sure that ho only does so under a full and lively sengo of his responsibility and with a just and particular knowledge of fche pheno*. mona to whioh\ he refers. Expressions like these have a twofold sanotion, and appeal to all who hear thorn wifch a double foroe. There is the faot that Sir James Hannen is the president of a tribunal whioh is unhappily becoming moro oooupiod from day to dayj there is also tho faot that he is not merely a judge, bufc that; he is an experienced, keenvisioned, praofcioal man of the world. Our judges havo oeased to be, if they ever were, musty expositors and administrators of fche law, legal troglodytes dwelling deep beneath a mass of parchment and precedents. They movo in society, fchey shine in sooiety, ana fchey have the distinguished preoedent of the head of tho judioial Benoh, Sir A. Cookbura, for dofllng in thoir leisure moments tbat air of "adamanfcino gravity" whioh tho Prime Minißtor has pronounced the vanished characteristic of the ohief offioors of Themis. The English judge of tho nineteenth century is muoh like other English gentlemen; he rides in the Park, ho yachts, he is eminently a clubbable poraon, ho is popular in drawing* rooms, he is mastor of the arts that pleaso afc the dinner- fcablo, and well pleased that; came maßtery fco display. Ifc is truo that; he does not "rink," bufc his eyes are well open to what passes in the soenes whioh he does frequent, and ho oan, therefore, oonjeoture what; passes in those whioh ho doe& not. Besides, the judge is frequently a married man, and ho finds in his wife a more useful and veracious Egeria than Mr Disraeli die* covered in his famous schoolgirl. His personal experience is supplemented by tho revolutions of his better-half. Thus his professional training, his social taste, habits, and opportunities contribute to invest his animadversions on sooial matters with what may without exaggeration be called oraoular.

It would bo useless to affect ignoranoe of tho preoiao kind of rendezvous to whioh allusion was mado by Sir James Hannen. Mrs Rippingall made, According fco her own state* menfc, tho aoquaintanoo of Mr Dolacour in January, 1875, afc Prince's j and when Prince's had closed, Mr Dolaoour, at loaet upon one oooasion, entorfcainod Mrs Rippingall afc his rooms for tho sake, as he termed it, with a somewhat oynioal absence of gallantry, of "killing the evoning." Thia is not by any means (he first oooasion on whioh tho successful speculation of (wo Waterloo-plaoe tobacconists has occupiod a prominent plaoe in the hiatory of eminent soandals. From the known it is legitimate te infer the unknown, and if tho acquaintances formed at Prince's havo in a oortain number of cases, of whioh wo have oognisanee, led the way to the Divoroe Court, in how many other oases, of whioh the outsido world knows nothing, must they nofc indubitably have opened up the path to worse sorts of mischief ? Threo years ago Prince's was the only instifcufcon of the kind in London. Ifc was oponod wifch a blare of fashionablo trumpets. It was under, the most distinguished and oxolusivo patronage. Ifc was doolared that only porsons of the first (en would be admitted to fcho honours of momborahip. It was announced fchat no ladies, unless they had boon presented at Court, oould bo received. Poaaibly theso condifcions have been in all oaaes complied wifch. If thoy have, ib oan only be said fchafc they are a farce and a satire. The memory of some of our readers will enable them to reoall fcwo of fcho most distinguished patronosses of Prince's last year, and a very slight aoquaintanoo with fche great; world is enough tb show thoso who glanoe afc the list of members that ifc is really too preposterous to speak of Prinoo's as a fashionable holy of holies. Tho central idea, as ifc is fche central foaturo of Prinoo's, was originally a criokofc ground. Racquet and Tennis Courts wore supplied. Then oame fcho akating on whools, and now it is fcho "rink," whioh, as far as aooiefcy is oondomed, haa a virtual monopoly of the fascinations of that deleotable resort;. The assumption being that all persons having the entrie of fcho onolosuro movod on tho same social level, mutual introductions were manifestly unnecessary. Evory ono know ovory one else, and tho aephalte patineurs and patinmses Light glide sido by side, happy and secure in that sentiment of reciprocal trust whioh the

faot of being in " sooiety " necessarily engenders. W eu, the world sees precisely what it all comes to. It may be that Prince s reflects the genius of the age, and tbat it is the inevitable result of the tendencies ef the age. If tbat is so, then suoh cases as Bippingall v. Rippingall and Delaoonr are the contingent ponalties whioh society must be prepared to pay for Prince's, and for tbe indulgence of its nineteenth century tastes.

I Tbe pattern of Prince's has long ago been oopied throughont the length and breadth of the capital and the country, and it is but reasonable to assume that the attendant virtues and vices of the great original are faithfully reproduced at its various tenth-rate imitations. If the orthodox denizens of the solect clubs of Pall Mall go to Hans-place to witness the graceful movements of, and to enjoy a breezy flirtation with, the loose-zoned Lady Clara Yere de Yere, the cheap swells of the Elkington and Niokel Clubs, gorgeously arrayed in the Imperial Highness overcoat r new this season, repair to Addison road to inspect tbe pretty actresses at play, while another order of snobs, the patrons of the in* ( fallible sixteen- shilling trousers, affect the rink near to the Portland parallelogram or tbe Chelsea Embankment, Our capacity for invention in this age is limited, our faculty of imitation is infinite ; and what dandies of the first degree do, that their humble followers of the nineteenth and twentieth will do alao. If wifch the upper ten thousand—an odious phrase enough — the skating rink is the hotbed of scandal, it will be tbe hotbed of scandals a good deal worse with those who are strangers to the restraints and worldly wisdom whioh "society" sometimes inculcates. We would simply ask, is there a single person who reads these words tbat cannot mention I from his or her experience some instance of the misohievous results of the terms on which the young of both sexes associate at the rink? Girls who ought to be in, who technically havo not left, the sohoolroom are addressed, according to the etiquette of the institution where, in servile and senseless adherence to the praotioe of Prince's, "introductions" are dispensed with, by young men— or, for the matter of thafc, men who are not young — and undesiiable acquaintances, or it may be not leas undesirable attachments, are formed. Tbe skating rink is a device for removing the lasfc protection whioh was afforded to youth and virtue from folly and libertinism. We oan conceive that there are certain arguments whioh might be theoretically urged in favour of this removal of the barriers whioh oustom and national sentiment have erected in the intercourse of young women and young men. It might be urged that these freer associations, these larger opportunities, would exeroise a softening and refining influence upon the manners of our young men, and tbe minds of our young women would lose that conventionally born* character whioh has become a reproach to feminine intellectual development. It might be predicted that rinks would or should smooth the path towards the realisation of tbat perfect equality between the two sexes which is the ideal of a oertain order of political theorists. It might be said that, thanks to the reforming instrumentality of asphalts, male selfishness would disappear, and fchat the female presence would inspire the masculine bosom with a chivalrous enthusiasm tbat has died, out of the pr osaio heroes of a practical generation. Has anything of the sort come about P is there anything whioh would for a moment warrant us in entertaining such anticipations t Have our young men become, or do they show any signs of becoming, more respeotfully enthusiastic, or our young women more noble and generous, now that we have fairly inaugurated the new rSgime ? On the contrary— -and it is nothing more than must have been foreseenmutual familiarity bas generated a mutual contempt. Women tread nearer the verge, walk with more noaohalance over the burning coals, than ever. Men presume more than ever upon woman's indifference to the approach of danger, and the influences of an atmosphere whioh is suffused with scandal. In a word, women have become to a great degree unaexed — havo lost that tenderness and gentleness whioh are their natural heritage and their richest gifts — while men have laid aside the very semblance of deferential courtesy and loyal reverence. The feminine ideal bas been degraded ; the manly ideal has not been exalted. Of course suoh a state of things cannot endure. We are passing through a period of transition, doubtless, though a period of whioh it is diffloult to see fche limit, or to discover tbe controlling influences. If there was ever a case whose moral is so plain that he who runs may read, it is that to whioh allusion has been made here— a case whioh reveals to us the diss** fcrous consequences of a system which naturally tempts to error and indiscretion, and that not the error and indiscretion that are sometimes illuminated with tbe glow of a passion— guilty, it may be, yet not altogether unpoetio — but the error and indiscretion of a cold, passionless, calculating dalliance with vice.

Tab Anti -Tobacco Sooibtt.— The endeavours, says the Pall Mall Gazette, of the English Anti-Tobacco Sooiety to put an end Co the practice of smoking attract but littlo attention, but it must aot be imagined that these efforts are in any way relaxed $ on the contrary, the society is as active and determined as ever to remove the pipe and the cigar from the mouth of tbe publio ; and it seems by the report of the committee read at the annual meeting of the society, held afc Manohester recently, tbat at last patience and perseverance will have their reward, and the noblo mission of the sooiety will before long be crowned with suooess. The committee, for the first time, " rejoiced to be able to report a great and daily increasing interest in the movement." This gratifying symptom has, of course, spurred the committee to inoreaeed exertion -. and " several letters have appeared in seoular and religious journals'' oondemniog the vile habit of smoking. A ladies' memorial against smoking, signed by no fewer than 250 ladies, was, at the suggestion of tha oommittee, lately addressed to the editor of the Christian World. A leoturer was lately engaged by the committee, and his engagement was only terminated beoause the support he received did not warrant the continuance of the engagement. He will, however, lecture when opportunity offers, aud when " local friends " will pay bis expenses. There is an enormous demand for tho Society's publications, but the want of a ohannel for more frequent communication with the publio is increasingly felt. The Sooiety has in hand a balance of £28, which is hardly sufficient to carry out the work to its " bitter end," but will go far towards effecting that object. Altogether, the Society is in a most flourishing oondition, and, as one of the speakers prophetically remarked, " there was no doubt they would arrive at tho millenium with regard to the tobacco question in time, though no was afraid he would not live to see it," :,-'.\ „./; r->,i*, J-