THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1911. AFTERNOON CALLS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10301, 2 August 1911, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1911. AFTERNOON CALLS.

The ufiteniooia-oaller is ias much, iii evidence in New Zealand as in most parts of the world.- -She-lis usually a woman of. leisure, with a "maid,," or a "ihelp," or. a "companion"'."to look after iihe youngsters' and other, little things, wluile ish© discusses matt©r& of infinite importance to the feminine isex over a. diminutive cup of tea and »• biscuit. It will come as a. slhook to "(her to learn (that rtlhie timehiallowied ikibit is falling into diiisuse among tihe leisured classes in the Mother Country. Cicely Hamilton, wnirtang on the "Mail," says:—"The custom of afternoon' calling ihas never any meaning to it; was never, so fan* as one can isee, anyßihing more ■than a 'pretence at occupation on the part *>f .persons who ihiad no duties wherewith to fill out the long and laay hours that stretch between' dinner and luaidhieon—and who set to work to invent a "colourable .sllhstiitute for such duties. About tine custom (thera •vrns never any real spirit of .social intercourse; no fellowship, no gaiety, no impetu's of argument or differing points'of view. It was a custom insipid, restricted land petty —a mere habit of putting in an appearance at certain stated thouisßS. Nothing oame of it, eitfher good or bad. What woman has ever left; an aiFtennoom tea-party the.richer far a newly-caught idea, the merrier for a deft thqugto deftly worded? For

the most part all she does 'carry away with her is an impression of dultoiiasfS and general imsiigjnificanee of talk. There must be a reason., of course, (for the fact that while man and mam can be jolly together—with ease and on the slightest provocation —woman' laiiici woman are apt to be bored wtith each other. The customawy masculine- explanation, has a* least the merit of extreme scnnpliicity. It is merely this—that women dislike each other, naturally and inevitably. Personally Ido not accept it; for the plain and sufficient reason* that 1 have 'heard women—many women—talk to each other with energy, with animation, with inteilii- ] gence, when they have any thing to - : ea ytha tneeded saying. Why they are tine reverse of animated, intelligent, and energetic in, speech and thought when they pay formal visits and collect round afternoon) teataiblas is that .wornem of Itthie class tiktat collect round afternoon) teatables have usually little that matters to say; not because tlhey axe less gifted ithiani other classes, but because itihsy are still (as thfiy always have been) hedged about with restrictions oa. the .subjeet-miatter of their conversation. Men—cluimisieir talkersi as a rule—are left free to deal with what they 'will in. speech.. In a isimoJciiiig-'rooro alii heaven and earth aire open to discussion. In the drawing-room, on the other hian/d, the rule has always been that conversation, shall merely skim the surface of life and the world. It is against the drawing-room convention of deadly dullness and restricted ispeecih that—often unconsciously—the modern 'woman revolts."