ave heard from an American lady that
"progressive dinners" have recently been introduced by the idle and
rich set of young people in New York. The modus operandi is that
several dinners will, by arrangement, be given on a certain day, and
the guests will go to each house alternately, eating one or two dishes
only and remaining at the last house for fruit. I can hardly believe
this, but my friend assures me it is a fact. It seems that eating is
turned into play, and to appreciate the fun, I would like to be one of
the actors.

[3] "The Living Temple", by J. H. Kellogg, pp. 282 et al. Published by
Good Health Publishing Co., Battle Creek, Mich., U.S.A.

Chapter 14. Theaters

The ideal of China is sincerity but an actor is a pretender. He
appears to be what he is not. Now our ancient wise men felt that
pretense of any sort must have a dangerous reactionary influence on the
character. If a man learns how to be a clever actor on the stage he
may be a skilled deceiver in other walks of life. Moreover, no one to
whom sincerity is as the gums are to the teeth, would wish to acquire
the art of acting as though he were some one else. Hence actors in
China have from ancient times been looked down upon. Actresses, until
the last decade or so, were unknown in China, and a boy who became an
actor could never afterward occupy any position of honor. He, his
children and his grandchildren might be farmers, merchants or soldiers,
but they could never be teachers, literary men or officials. The
Chinese feeling for sincerity, amounting almost to worship, has caused
the profession of an actor in China to be considered a very low one,
and so until the new regime the actor was always debarred from
attending any literary examination, and was also deprived of the
privilege of obtaining official appointment; in fact he was considered
an outcast of society. No respectable Chinese family would think of
allowing their son to go on the stage. As a natural consequent the
members of the Chinese stage have, as a rule, been men who were as much
below the level of moral respectability as conventionalism had already
adjudged them to be below the level of social respectability. Regard
anyone as a mirror with a cracked face and he will soon justify your
opinion of him. If the morals of Chinese actors will not bear
investigation it is probably due to the social ostracism to which they
have always been subjected. The same phenomenon m