e young in spirit,
whether old or young, expect, and should have an hour at the
newest, liveliest, and most recreative games. No part of the evening
entertainment should be allowed to drag. To insure this a frequent
change of social games is needed.

AVOID LATE HOURS.

As late hours tend to produce irregularity in sleep, in meals, and in
work; and since the object of the social is recreation, the company
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 every community,
that only "certain ones" can do this or that; the consequence is that
these "certain ones" do all the work, are deprived of the true rest and
relief which the social is meant to give, while others who should
take their turn, gr