dle-class standards of
taste, morality, and intellect is, so far as it goes, a good thing. "Too
many cocktails," a lady averred to me the other day, "is better than
smugness; risque conversation far better than none at all." And that
celebrated "public-be-damned" attitude of the pseudo-aristocracy is a
great moral improvement over the cowardly, hysterical fear of the
neighbors which prevails in the middle class.

But, if I sympathize with the "hell raising" tendency--no other phrase
describes it--of the young woman of the leisure class, I have more pity
than sympathy for the one who is trying to realize the ideal of the
"salon." For she must, after sad experience and bitter disillusionment,
be content with the tawdry activities which, relieved by the orgiastic
outbreaks alluded to above, constitute social life in America.

The establishment of a salon is, in itself, a healthful ideal. If
civilization were destroyed, and rebuilt on any plan, the tradition of
the salon would be a good starting point for the creation of a medium of
satisfying social intercourse. Social intercourse we must have, or the
best of us lapse into boorishness. The ego only properly functions in
contact with other and various egos. So that, in any case, we should
have to have something in the nature of our contemporary "society."
All the more do we need "society" at present, since those ancient
institutions, the church and the cafe, have almost entirely lost the
character of real social centers.

Recognizing this need, and supposing the best intentions in the world,
what can people do at present in the creation of a "society" which shall
be useful to the community instead of a laughing stock for the
intelligent?

That is a fair question. Many an ambitious and idealistic young American
matron has tried to solve it. She has found that the materials were a
little scarce--the people who could talk brilliantly are very rare. But
brilliancy is always a miracle, and it can be dispensed with. The real
trouble lies elsewhere.

The fact is that in our present industrial system the need for social
life is in inverse ratio to the opportunity for it. The people who need
social intercourse are those who do hard work. The people who have most
money and leisure, the most opportunity for social life, are those who
have too much of it, anyway. Moreover--and this is an important
point--no one profits less by leisure and money than those who have a
great deal of