AFTERNOON CALLS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 216, 6 November 1900, Page 4

AFTERNOON CALLS.

- Thim are hundreds of thou ands of womeo the world over »hj wm h arti y endorse in articeinthe Humanitarian by Mm. AgueaLawis. "Tne Tyranny of Galling.' It is a oommon thing, in New Zealand as "well as elaewhere, to hear a tired lady Bay, «I „ M V ety fortunate this- afternoon. I fouod Mw. A.] Mrs 8., and Mrs. C. out. v , Men ask way women call oa other* - they don't want to see, diiuk tea thay don't want t j drink, eat indigestible pattry, and afser ten minutes cf at twtuted small talk,, leare to repeat the same thing at other houses. Mr>. . Lewisfranklysays that hdies ol nrnplybeouue »is the custom to do to, and waste hours of mental and physical energy to keep alive for ten minutes a flicker of talk, They say nothing to reveal their personality, •hey stadiously hide their feelingß and . thoughts, and they elioit not one Bpark of originality from their acquaintances. Mrs. Lewis takes as an example a . v Joing married woman, who ia cultivited to such an extent that she has sot looked 6s marriage as the sole aim and object of existence, and as the final termination of all Btruggle and improvement. She is, perhaps, living in a small country town, and is inun-! datei with cellars, not because she h exceptionally charming or rich, bat because she was new. She is not only bewildered by numbers of fresh faces and people who tell her the same story ever and over again, but she is also compelled to return the calls laboriously ", and painfully. While she ia endeavoring to discharge this social duty, and is sacrificing every afternoon of her ■life to tea and small talk in hot rooms, - her visitors begin to call again, and •he realiiM that a fresh assault is made upon her time. At this orisiß in her life she has to take a stand; *• ahe most either be entirely engulfed by the claims cf tooial life, or she must let the social lif a go on without her, •nsl be left high and dry, a human derelict, beyond its tides." She most call or die, that is to say, die socially, and die a death that is not even foi- ■ lowed by a decent burial. Buty after ' all, Mrs, Lewis sees nothing very dreadful in being socially stranded, ostracised, or killed, nha gees on to - say that if a woman has any grit iu ier. she will accept the alternative, and throw off the thraldom of social . 'tyrannies. If she has the moral courage to defy the gossip of neighbors who talk about her ''giving hersslf air" and so forth, and, especially, if she has ideas and a personality that attracts those who, like herself, long to forswear allegiance to petty custom, she will have little difficulty in avoiding the swarm of bussing callers of an idle day, and mainbainiug tober and -. naiottaole intercourse with some few acqu»iatances whose society h worth preserfing. 'Just so, but how many * 4 women have the courage to defy social conventions I And ad do not live in large cities, where they can fi&d the souls as Mrs. Lewis suggests, _ and ia small towns the defiance of custom wonld result in the oatraoism of theofledder, wboteftienda woudeach and all take it as personal affront. So round and roucd they go in the sotial treadmill. ._ Could non Mrs. Lewis suggest 4cm9thing a.liotle easier!