A MODERN CHILD'S PARTY.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 692, 25 June 1870, Page 1

A MODERN CHILD'S PARTY.

[CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL.]

*' W4l£ there be any, children, I wonder, amongst us a gerieratioil* or two hence 1" sighed Housewife, the other night, upon the occasion of his last juvenile party for the season ; and, really, when I looked about me, I could scarcely feel astonished at his inquiry. The room, indeed, .was full of children m one sense, but, m another, there was not a child to be seen. It was an assemblage of little men and women. The dancing was as stately as a minuet ; and each duodecimo dame had a " card m which to set down her engagements. I heard one of them, refuse a most gallant cavalier (m puce velvet and lace) her hand for the Lancers, upon the ground that it had been previously mised to another ; and yet she did not dance that set. "And why," said I, " my little lady, did you not dance with that gentleman 1 lam sure he looked ■ ; •_ very good-natured." " Good-natured 1— yes," returned she, shrugging her small shoulders; "but how .unfortunately plain !" This young person was about eight years old. Another beau was ue>; jected by ja sweet little maiden of eleven, upon the ground that he had danced with her twice already. "And are you so inconstant as all that ?" inquired I deferentially. " No," said shß frankly ;" I like him as well as any m the room. , : - But I don't like being laughed at, anl r ■> people. do laugh if one dances more than twice with the same person." She was actually afraid of " being talked about ! w Instead of the indiscriminate rush which used to follow the announcement of supper when we were young, these dignified juveniles went down m couples, and talked the same twaddle on the stairs which their seniorsuse-^-inquiring sedately ' ■ of one another .whether they had been lately to the theatre, or were going out of town. At the repast itself it was thought vulgar to admire; as for bursting into applause at the sight of any gorgeous dainty, as youth was surely wont to do — to have given way to such an impulse ,would have been considered barbaric. On the o^her hand, depreciatory criticism was as freely exchanged as among the . most fashionable grown up society. Professor Puzzleton's son and heir, aged seven, happened to be my neighbor. Having inherited the faculty of analyticrT investigation from his parent he was taking the gilt off the conjuror's tricks which had just been performed up-stainr, and preaching upon the text of the fibllpwness of things m general. Presently he took up a highly ornamental cracker, and m a loud and distinct voice — the, r*prjk - echo of his father's lecture-room tone—" observed: " These crackers were made at .. home." I saw the color into Mrs Housewife's face when^6n:findiug it did not explode, lie added~« Ah, I;sipught so," Another young gentleman of *rome- J' J? what less tender age, who, it seemed to, . me, had had quite as much champagne as* " was good for him, was ceaseless m his importunities ft»r port. " Port wine, I ~sayT~— •" rort wine, win you r*^were the observations he addressed to levery waiter, with increasing irritation. Now, m his ignorance of the tastes of the rising gene- x " ration, their host had. provided no port .v. wine, and the indignation of his very respectable butler at its being demanded " m this public mannei a charming spectacle. I saw him growing redder and redder with each reiteration of the re* = quest, which he nevertheless affected to ignore. When the little ladies retired from the table, some of the little gentlemen remained to discuss matters of general interest, with their little legs as wide apart as they would go, and their little thumbs m the arm-holes of their waistcoats, and among others was my bacchanalian friend, as importunate as ever. " They have got no port at this house ; think of that!" cried he. Then Housewife, wishing to discover the young gentleman's reason for wanting port, as well, perhaps, as to remove this stigma from his character for ' hospitality, caused a bottle of the desired liquor to be brought. "Now, why were you so anxious for that wine, my young . Mend ?" inquired he. " Well, you see, I've had a deal of dancing, and though your 'Fizz' (by which he meant champagne) is well enough, there's nothing like port wine to pick a fellow up." From subsequent inquiries, I discovered that ' , this gentleman had but just arrived at his .- teens; he had seen, as the novelists say, : only thirteen summers ! Surely Housewife's remark upon the probable extinction . of the gexmiinfansofficiiudis — the common child as it used to be — was not without good grounds.