HOSTESSES ADOPT DRASTIC MEASURES WITH YOUNG FOLK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18888, 14 October 1929, Page 12

HOSTESSES ADOPT DRASTIC MEASURES WITH YOUNG FOLK.

SOCIAL BLACK LIST WILL RECORD THOSE WHO FORGET MANNERS (Special to the “ Star.”) NEW YORK, June 20. Nemesis has overtaken those up-to-the-next-minute smart young things who scorn anything so old-fashioned as consideration for others. American hostesses, weary of the casual way the younger set has been acting, have now adopted the drastic measure of a social black list. This has caused a profound upheaval among the delinquents. The young, folk are well aware of the fact that there is a whole world of difference between defaulting, after accepting an invitation to an exclusive home for luncheon or dinner and .not having the opportunity of ’ deciding whether to go; or to stay away. Rumour has been rife for a. long while regarding the state of affairs among New York’s “Four Hundred"— which to-day is more like “Four Thousand.” But last week national-public-ity was given to the latest move on the part of distraught hostesses by an article in the “Saturday Evening Post,” which gives explicit examples of • the conduct that has been so freely, criticised in the social columns arid at society gatherings. v ’■ Unpunctual Guests. Comment has been made for a long trifle about the impossibility of giving a dinner worth eating because of the way young guests ignored the time of arrival. They did not dream of j putting in an appearance earlier 1 than three-quarters of an hour past • the stipulated time. Hostesses tried the dodge of sending out special invitations to such offenders and deliberately marked the hour 45‘ minutes earlier than was stated on the invitations sent to punctilious guests. But the sweet young things soon discovered the duplicity of the hostesses. They were horrified to. • find themselves arriving at dinners, with the Mid-Victorian precision of the “oldfashioned crowd.” They quidkly'punished the perpetrators of the annoyance by appearing on the scene one hour and a half after the stated time! Hostesses had to acknowledge ’/themselves defeated, and then they compiled the black list -which has thrown the Washington social impasse into the background: So great is the perturbation of-those concerned that the\ r have sent out a questionnaire among their friends asking for answers to a number of delicate questions, among them, according to the angry hostess writing in the “Post” being: “If you accept an invitation to luncheon or dinner, will you try to arrive on time, so that you will not have to leave before it is over to meet other engagements ? “If j-ou accept an invitation to dinner, will you attend it?” Several Dinners a Day. The second query is made compulsory because it embraces the second of the sins which New York hostesses ! are now classifying as mortal. Young things have been airily Accepting invitations, possibly several for 1 the same day and hour, wflth the fixed intention of fulfilling the one which ; appeals most at the moment it arrives, 1 or of tossing all overboard if something ; more to their taste should crop up • meanwhile. The result has - created » havoc. , 1 Empty seats at a formal dinner make ' a Banquo’s feast; the hostess- is put 1 to open shame, or at least humiliation. 1 Yet it has occurred constantly, and the defaulting guests have not even : bothered to make explanations.- Now • they are placed on the black list they • will have no option but to announce [ a reformation or to stay in the outer ' darkness of exclusion.