n the pursuit of business
or pleasure to spend time in these multifarious cares. Mrs. John
Sherwood says: "They cannot even spend time to make their dinner
calls. 'Mamma, please leave my cards,' is the legend written on their
banners."

Influence of Women.

The wonderful influence of women of culture and fashion, with their
"happy ways of doing things" in the political, as well as the social
world, is as great now in Washington as it ever was in Paris, in the
palmiest days of the Imperial _Salon_.

The graces and the courtesies of life are in their hands. It is women
who create society. It is women from whom etiquette is learned, not
from association with men. The height of a stage of civilization can
always be measured by the amount of deference paid to woman. The
culture of a particular man can be gauged by his manner when in the
company of ladies.

Primitive man made women do all the hard work of life, bear all the
burdens, eat of the leavings, and be the servants of the tribe.

Civilized man, on the other hand, gives precedence to woman in every
particular. He serves her first, he gives her places of comfort and
safety, he rises to assist her at every opportunity, and we measure
his culture by sins of omission, or commission, along this line.

Thus, all these small observances not only conduce to the comfort of
woman, but they refine and do away with the rough and selfish side of
man's nature, for without this refining contact with gentle womanhood,
a man will never lose the innate roughness with which nature has
endowed him.

It is women, as before said, who create etiquette, and Burke tells us
that "manners are of more importance than laws." A fine manner is the
"open sesame" that admits us to the audience chamber of the world. It
is the magic wand at whose touch all barriers dissolve.

Effect of Cultured Manners.

"Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery
of palaces and fortunes wherever he goes. He has not the trouble of
earning or owning them; they solicit him to enter and possess."

Whatever enjoyment we obtain from our daily intercourse with others is
through our obedience to the laws of etiquette, which govern the whole
machinery of society, and it is largely to women with their leisure,
and their tact, that we must look to create and sustain the social
fabric.

"To know her is a liberal education," was the stately compliment once
paid a woman, and there are wome