should retire about midnight. Oftentimes people stay and stay at
such a gathering, until the hostess, the entertaining committee, and
the people themselves are worn out. And yet, who is at fault? This
is a critical point in the modern popular social. How shall the company
disband in due season? In his "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,"
Oliver Wendell Holmes gives a suggestion on this point for the
private visitor, who does not know how to go. Says Holmes: "Do
n't you know how hard it is for some people to get out of a room
when their visit is really over? They want to be off, and you want
to have them off, but they do n't know how to manage it. One would
think they had been built in your parlor or study and were waiting to
be launched. I have contrived a sort of ceremonial inclined plane for
such visitors, which being lubricated with certain smooth phrases, I
back them down, metaphorically speaking, stern-foremost, into their
'native element,' the great ocean of outdoors." There are social companies
as hard to get rid of as this. They want to go, and every one wants them
to go, but just how to make the start, no one seems to know. Dr. Holmes
and his "inclined plane" may have been successful with the private caller,
but who will be the "contriver of a ceremonial," one sufficient to land the
social company into its "native element, the great ocean of outdoors?"
No, this most delicate of the problems involved in a successful modern
social must be left to a tactful hint from the entertainment committee,
and to the wise choice of a few recognized leaders in the company.


NEW COMMITTEES.

Special committees should have charge of the serving and of the
entertainment. As far as possible these should vary with each
successive social. It is an erroneous notion, prevalent in nearly