be meticulously
perfect for all that! There is no more excuse for rude or careless or
selfish behavior at a picnic than at a ball.

=PUBLIC BALLS=

A public ball is a ball given for a benefit or charity. A committee makes
the arrangements and tickets are sold to the public, either by being put
on sale at hotels or at the house of the secretary of the committee. A
young girl of social position does not go to a public ball without a
chaperon. To go in the company of one or more gentlemen would be an
unheard-of breach of propriety.

=SUBSCRIPTION DANCES AND BALLS=

These are often of greater importance in a community than any number of
its private balls. In Boston and Philadelphia for instance, a person's
social standing is dependent upon whether or not she or he is "invited to
the Assemblies." The same was once true in New York when the Patriarch and
Assembly Balls were the dominating entertainments. In Baltimore too, a
man's social standing is non-existent if he does not belong to the "Monday
Germans," and in many other cities membership in the subscription dances
or dancing classes or sewing circles distinctly draws the line between the
inside somebodies and the outside nobodies.

Subscription dances such as these are managed and all invitations are
issued by patronesses who are always ladies of unquestioned social
prominence. Usually these patronesses are elected for life, or at least
for a long period of years. When for one reason or another a vacancy
occurs, a new member is elected by the others to fill her place. No
outsider may ever ask to become a member. Usually a number of names are
suggested and voted on at a meeting, and whoever wins the highest number
of votes is elected.

The expenses of balls such as Assemblies, are borne by the patronesses
collectively, but other types of dances are paid for by subscribers who
are invited to "take tickets"--as will be explained.

_How Subscription Dances Are Organized_

Whether in city, town or village, the organization is the same: A small
group of important ladies decide that it would be agreeable to have two or
three balls--or maybe only one--a season. This original group then
suggests additional names until they have all agreed upon a list
sufficient in size to form a nucleus. These then are invited to join, and
all of them at another meeting decide on the final size of the list and
whom it is to include. The list may be a hundred, or it may stay at the