none of my readers would
patronize or even "hear tell of," except through the newspapers.

The Inauguration Ball in Washington, as well as the New Years'
receptions at the different embassies' and secretaries' houses, are
public functions to which the populace get admittance. They are crushes
of the worst description, and at many of them refreshments are served.
Except to make an obeisance to your distinguished host and hostess--if
to the President, shaking hands with him--no other ceremony is needed.

At Newport and at other watering places there are during the season
semipublic dances at the Casino. Any one who subscribes to that place of
amusement is entitled to all the social privileges. The tickets can be
obtained from the secretary or his agent.

In every city there is an assembly or dancing organization on the lines
of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in New York. This is in itself not
original with the "Four Hundred"--vulgar term!--but was copied from the
St. Cecilia, the most exclusive affair of the kind in aristocratic
Charleston, where it has existed since the days of the Revolution. The
assemblies proper in New York are called the Matriarchs. The
arrangements are in the hands of a number of fashionable women instead
of men. The plan of all these organizations is practically the same. In
order to make matters easy and to pilot my reader through the
intricacies of a fashionable ball, I will suppose that he is a stranger
in New York, with some smart friends, and that he is going either to the
Patriarchs' or to the Assembly. The rules laid down will hold good for
other cities. Your first intimation may be while visiting at the house
of one of the patrons or patronesses, when your hostess or host may ask
you if you would like to go to the Assembly or the Patriarchs'. If you
have no other engagement for that evening--and I think it would be
policy for you to make others subservient to this--you should reply
that you would be delighted to do so. Your host or hostess will then say
that he or she will send you a ticket. This may be one way, or you may
receive a note asking if you are free for that particular date, whether
"would you like to go to the Assembly?" etc., or again, you might simply
receive a note with a ticket. In any one of these cases, just as soon as
you receive the ticket you must answer your correspondent immediately,
accepting, or, if you can not go, regretting and returning it. You must
remember th