THE TALK OF SOCIETY.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2823, 2 March 1878, Page 4

THE TALK OF SOCIETY.

The mere routine work of each season produces, for a certain class of society, topics enough to supply with the materials of many.hours' dialogue the most brainless he or she who drifts through.the regulation amount of duty or pleasure prescribed by the rubric of fashion. The veriest parrot, from the blessed iteration of the same phrases (if not ideas), heard hourly for three or four solid months, can scarcely fail to hare glibly on the tip of his tongue sufficient small-change of talk to pay his- way without difficulty among the initiated. And there are always one or two great salient events in the history of each season which, independent of the smaller gossip, fend off from the talker the necessity of plunging, without a corkjacket, into the hopeless waters of originality. Let us cast an eye over the last few seasons ;. at once it is struck by a dozen things of the sort. For instance, a royal savage— the blacker the better—visits the country, and reduces the nation to a state of infantile imbecility. In his honor there are court entertainments, where he is puzzled ; and municipal banquets, where his inner man is compromised; a review at Windsor, where he is again puzzled; an exhibition of ironclads, where he is frightened and again sick. What a fund of topics in all this! What possibilities of earnest question and response t Were you there? Were you? Had you the entree to the privileged places? Did you see him? Is it true that he was sulky and rude ? Can it be CQn.seiT*ble that his teeth chattered? Then the Duchess of , in giving a fancy ball, supplies another fertile theme. It was beautiful, but she gave H too late or too early. It clashed witk the festa of some other potentate. Such a pity I And was royalty really offended or not? If so, why ?—if not, why not ? - Then the Prince's garden party—if you were st it, it is well; if not, still it is well, for much time can be consumed in giving every reason but the true one for your absence. The Academy hag a sensation picture, painted by a girl blind from her birth Here art-talk "sV discretion." She, is' equal to Salvator Bosa, or Horace Vernet or Patxl Potter, or any other painter—no matter whom—to whom the vox populi has taughl yo« to liken her. There is a new reading of Hamlet by a Hindoo, which, (in Hindustan) edifies society. Such a mellifluous language Hindustani.' So perfect a vehicle for Shakspearian thought! Some curled darling of society cheats at cards or helps himself to his I neighbour's wife. Here is breathless interest! Why did he doit? When? How P Where ? What does Sir John say to it? Will tho countess ever get over the shock? Moral—how can people do such things? Some one else who ought to have known better commits some other faux pas, scarcely discussible but which can be sniffed round '^iti! titillating inuendoes and low confidential murmurings. Buroand has ar^ f arce the scream of which has been lond enough fo cross the channpJVand be echoed 10 j.aria. Doubtless you may have heard it in both languages P Offenbach outdoes himself in a new opera bouffe, " Suzanne efe les Yieillards." A little shocking/is it not? but then so bright and clever! That atones for most things. And' then comes the "music of the future," and sets the whole queer jumble to.' appropriate strains. You heard " Lohengrin P " You did ? It was a perfect enigma to you or entirely comprehensible. You sat through the whole of that first suffocating night? to the end ? and wished for more ? No wonder ! Or wished yourself dead. How natural!— Black* wood's Magazine.