"NOT AT HOME."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 533, 14 June 1909, Page 3

"NOT AT HOME."

The fact .that calling is ' slowly but surely going 'out of fashion is one that 'the average woman is bound to recognise, saya a Melbourne.paper. "If golfand bridge havo dono. nothing else,"-.said a.welUknown woman emphatically, as she drank her tea,- recently in tho region of: oertain golf links, "they can at least be credited with having 'done for , calling." How truly, she spoke was homo .witness' to by , ' two other 'popular women. "You should have seen'us last Wednesday!" exclaimed i one of them. "Wβ .called on half a dozen women, all of them supposed to be at home on. that particular Wednesday.-Not one of them was ill—and it was a smart suburb, with every houpe lniles away, from tlie.rest. 'Not a drop of tea anywhere—and the end-of .us was we had to> betake ourselves, 1 with all 1 our Sunday clothes, to; a bakers shop and actually beg for Eome!" Similar experiences arc quite likely to befall anyone.' -'■The custom : of,_ being 'at home on certain days to receive visitors is more honoured in - tho breach than tho observance; Tho reason is obvious.. Acquaintances are given ; endless: opportunities of meeting at all sorts of public and charitable, entertainments,, and . the . folly of going from ' onb crowded drawing-room to another, exchanging platitudes with stranger!, while - /one's liostess was' practically inaccessible, has come to be recognised. The day, isfar dis-'-.tant when tho entertainment of friends with '■a. chat over, a cup of tea will have ceased to be, but no,thinking woman can regret tho passing of the formal call and the discomfort ot the once ipopular at-home day. , ~