f furnishing
is substantially the same. There should be a masculine note throughout
the entire scheme. The furniture should be old-fashioned, and the
pictures sporting and hunting prints and steel engravings. There should
be an air of homeliness and open hospitality about the place. It should
look as if it were verily Liberty Hall.

A tract of unprofitable land could be converted into golf links and a
tennis court laid out. A picnic is the popular form in which bachelors
who have such a possession may entertain. Some fifty to one hundred
people can be invited, and a special train or boat, if the place is too
far from the city for a drive, chartered for their accommodation. The
invitations should state the hour at which this train or boat would
leave the city. Stages await the guests at the country station and bring
them up to the house. Cocktails, drinkables, claret cup, tea, and
sandwiches are served on their arrival. There should be no fixed
programme of amusement. Luncheon, or luncheon and dinner both, according
to the length of stay, could be served, and the _menu_ should embrace a
few courses of country fare. Dancing in the barn during the afternoon
will be another form of entertainment, or if you wish to give an
elaborate entertainment, vaudeville performers might be hired for the
hour after luncheon.

In a large establishment the bachelor who entertains usually has
residing with him a sister or female relative who acts as hostess. One
of the delights of a wealthy bachelor is to have a large and
well-appointed stable with a number of traps which are at the
disposition of his guests.

A bachelor host always drives to the station or boat to meet his guests.
A drag, three-seated surrey, or a station van would be the smart
vehicle. I am now writing of a man of large means. The method of
entertaining should be the English one, without any fixed programme for
the days of the guests' stay. Only when there is shooting, the party is
expected to assemble in the morning. If there is a local club, your men
guests should be put up at it, and the entire party made visiting
members of the neighboring casino. The rest is conveyed in the advice to
have always plenty of good cheer and to entertain the visitors as much
as possible. In these houses there is much drinking, possibly, and
perhaps cards, but a young man who is a guest should be firm enough to
resist temptation, and to stand by his convictions.

One word more, and th