PING-PONG AS A MATRIMONIAL AGENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7506, 13 September 1902, Page 3

PING-PONG AS A MATRIMONIAL AGENT.

{Tit-Btts.) j Oh, yes! I am decidedly a ping-pong enthusiast, said a society woman who en tertains largely and has a reputation foi skill in the amiable art of match-making. Not that I play the game myself, but because it is proving the very best ally Cupid ' ever had. If the marriage rate has not gone up 50 per cent since the game was introduced I shall be very much surprised. You see, the great difficulty with mothers of marriageable daughters and with women like myself, who like to see girls fulfilling their destiny in life, is to bring the young people together under conditions that will give them opportunities of thoroughly knowing each other. In older days dancing and lawn. tennis were admirable matrimonial agencies; but for some time they seem to have lost thedr fascination, for young men especially. How difficult it is to get men to a dance only the harassed hostess knows, and when you have safely 'netted them it is still more difficult to get them to dance, while lawn tennis has long yielded to the fascination for golf — a most unamiable game, I assure you — and the tennis lawns are left to indigent curates and boys. I But ping-pong has come most opportune- | ly to our rescue, and personally I should like to canonise the genius who invented it. ' There is a curious fascination about it whioh quickly enslaves young people of both sexes, and it is one of the very few games in which a girl can hold her own with a man. I know no game which more quickly thaws the coyest of girls and the most superior and apathetic of young menr— it's no use trying to be dignified or reserved when you are playing ping-pong — and this I know from experience, that two young people will get really more intimate after i an evening spent at the ping-pong table Luian after a whole season of ordinary conventional intercourse. All affectations and reserves take wings swifter than the ball 'itself, and the player becomes for once his or her °wn natural self. You know, too, there is nothing like a game of this sort for bringing out the true character. I have often heard' a young man say, after an exciting contest with a fair opponent, "I had no idea Miss was such a jolly girl. I always thought her a bit cold and stand-offish " j or " "What a j sweet girl Miss — — is !— so amiable and so generous in her play." - j Of course, there is the other side to the shield ; and I know of more than one case where a girl has completely spoiled her chances by exhibiting temper or not play- > ing fairly or generously ; and I know of at? least one breach of promise case for which ping-pong is responsible. One dear friend of mine tvho has three | charming, but too demure z daughters^ who were inevitably drifting on to the shelf, has got them all happily engaged through ping-pong. The girls are simply delightful, but until this game revealed them in their true character none of the young men seemed to know it. One of my husband's old friends— a man who was not only a confirmed bachelor, but ' who never would meet a woman if he could help it — was at last induced to come .to one of my ping-pong parties. He watched the play in a rery superior and disdainful kind of way for some time until the excitement infected him and he was tempted to try his hand. From that moment he was done for. He developed quite a mania for the game, and, what is more, completely lost his heart to a young niece of mme £ whom he led to the altar last week. ! In another equally hopeless case I induced 1 the elderly daughter of our vicar, who was considered by those who did not know her the very model, of primness and austerity, to .come to one of my ping-pong evenings. Sh_ fell in love with the game and developed such unexpected youthfulness, high spirits, and amiability that within a month a flourishing young solicitor of my acquaintance had secured her promise to be his wife. Can you wonder that ping-pong is -°o popular? ! * I