Introductions.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2081, 7 November 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Introductions.

Ix Boston (sayH a correspondent), our " best people" are setting the ban of their displeaeuro against the custom of introducing people to' other people. The social line?, including questa who may be introduced to other guests, are wiy tightly drawn, and an invitation to people in good society to visit them does not, by any means, involve the probability of your becoming known to the other gueats. Thia ia not taken to mean that you are not at hbeity to " scrape acquaintance" with any of the lordly guests, if you choo3e to make the attempt, but simply that the hostess considers it no part of her duty to impose your acquaintanceship upon her other friends. There are some old families here, the bearers of prerevolutionary names and pedigrees, who carry the absurd new notion to a ridiculous extreme. Many of these families are as poor as churoh mice, and have no little trouble to scrape along in their shabby gentility, but the way they hold up their social superiority is something truly agonizing. I heard a bright and cultivated young lady telling of her experience under one of theeo ancestral roof-trees the other evening, and as nhe is sensible enough to enjoy the absurdity of the whole pretentious custom, it gives her friends no little healthy amusement. At a private musicale a few evenings ninoe, one of the young lady guejais, who is a sooial favorite, as well »3 a remarkable fine amateur pianist, wa3 approached at the olose of a brilliant performanoe by ono of the grand and unapproachable dames, who condescended to say: " You play vsry weil. You really must a^k some one to introduce you to me 1" Noedless to hay, the presentation has not yet been made.

" The power to converse well ia a very great charm," says ltuskin. " You think anybody can talk. How mistaken you are. An} body oau ohatter. Anybody oan exchanije idle gousip. Anybody can reoapitulrtte the troubles of tho kitchen, the cost of tbo Iftit new dresa, and the probable doings of the neighbor. But to talk wisely, instructively, freshly, and delightfully i-s an iininentio accomplishment. It implies exertion, observation, study of books and people, and receptivity of impression." Plato banished tho musicians from his feasts that the charms of conversation might have no inteifeicnoo; but in our later fashions many prefer music lather than the gossip of tho hour, which often degenerates into tiivialitiea, weaiiaome and commonplace.

" What's that you havo in your hand?" asked Mr?. Gimlet of her lw band, as ho brought homo a roll of manuscript. " Brains, madaiiiu," lbtorttd Mr. GniiUt, pompi>ubly ; " are you Biirprined nt that fuut'i"' "Not in tho leubt," she luplied," I know jou didn't carry them in your head."— -N. Y. Graphic.