A NEW PUZZLE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 32, 7 February 1931, Page 22

A NEW PUZZLE

But what is it? 1 have so often wondered what people who write about ♦'Society girls" find "Society beauties" really menu by the phrase, writes Charles Graves iv the ''Daily Mail." At best it is an inconvenient and self-conscious tag. At worst it is, if not totally meaningless, Ticnrly always incorrect. , Having said this I suppose I must try to define when the phrase is correctly applied, which brings mo back to tho original question. A cynic with whom I discussed1 the thorny problem replied, "Anyone who can produce his or her mother and father without embarrassment at a smart night club certainly passes the test. ■ Goodness knows," she added, "that would eliminate Lady ——and Lady Dash and Lady Blank, and ,Sir John Asterisk and Lord ■\Vhosit ano} hundreds of others." An American, when asked, would probably say that if a man had been to a levee or a woman had been presented at Court,. each automatically was .in "Society." But subalterns and other junior officers who have been to levees are not necessarily in "Society." Thirty years ago tne question of whether a person was in."Society" or not was a fairly easy matter to discover. There were many great houses the hostesses of which gave balls. If a person was invited to tlicm, ho could properly bo described as being in "Society." To-day Londonderry House and Bridgewater House- alono remain, and, Lord Londonderry being- a politician, or at least, interested: iv poHiivas, many guests are invited to has

THIS "SOCIETY" BUSINESS

house .largely on that score. And politics are.certainly not "Society." Someone of the old school might deline "Society" as a. group of people known1 personally to the King and Queen. But thnt would include Scottish stationmasturs, .who might bo the j last to wish to consider themselves members of this amorphous, elastic, and indefinable thing. . Altogether it would appear on consideration that while it is next to impossible to say who is in "Society," it is painfully easy to decide who is not. There is no ncid tost. There is no responsible authority whose decision, like an editor's, can be final. There are many peers and baronets, impoverished and otherwise, who live in the country and are not iv "Society," though if "their daughters came up to London-for tho season they undoubtedly would be. There are one or two actresses' and several actors who arc in "Society." In America they have their social register. In England have our sense of humour. Many old families have little enough to laugh about, in these days of taxation. Perhaps it is an act of Providence directed specially for their benefit that the word "Society" still exists. . ■ It will be noted that throughout this articlo I,have taken for granted that "Society" menus London "Society." Scottish "Society" is a different affair. It i^ clearly denim.ble, difficult to enter, nnd, as Scotland is the last home of the-xclan. spirit, so Scottish "Society" will ultimately be tiro last homo of the aristocracy, except , for Kenya Colo-' >