THE WAYS 0¥ MODERN SOCIETY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7087, 1 May 1901, Page 2

THE WAYS 0¥ MODERN SOCIETY.

, A HUMOROUS SKETCH.

A rather humorous sketch of London society, by Mr G. P. Pillai, appears in the " Universal and Ludgate Magazine."

There is even a correct style (saye the writer) to hold one's walking-stick. Ife should be held at an angle of 45 deg, with the ferrule uppermost and forward.

The laugh, we are told, is a test of goodbreeding, and the sooiety woman has to cultivate an elegant, mode of laughter. Nature, which often asserts herself in boisterous laughter, must sot be allowed" to have her own way. ••

Society also demands that lies should be told on certain occasions, or, at any rate, that the truth should be concealed. When declining an invitation you ougfot not to u»9 the threadbare formula, " Owing to previous engagement." It is better to assign isomie reason, and a Hie comes in handy. When dinner-parities are given it is required that they should consist, numerically, of never less than the Graces, and never more than the Muses. The most extraordinary thing is that all these rules of etiquette are observed by Englishmen and Englishwomen wherever they happen to be, whatever be tihe nature of the climate under which they dwell. Starched shirt-fronts and stiff collars are dictated by etiquette in England' because they are also necessitated by the weather. In a cold country like England, to be) dressed as English etiquette requires is certainly not altogether uncomfortable; but they are positively uncomfortable in India, and yet they would- have it ! It is usual in England for a. man to be swathed in three coats of flannel; there are men who would ding to flannel in India as they have to cling to it in. England.