Then, too, it is now distinctly bad form to practise legerdemain
or feats of sleight-of-hand at a dinner party. Time was when it
was considered correct for a young man who could do card or other
tricks to add to the gayety of the party by displaying his skill,
but that time is past, and the guest of today, who thinks to make
a "hit" by pulling a live rabbit or a potted plant from the back
of the mystified hostess or one of the butlers, is in reality
only making a "fool" of himself if he only knew it. The same
"taboo" also holds good as concerns feats of juggling and no
hostess of today will, I am sure, ever issue a second invitation
to a young man who has attempted to enliven her evening by
balancing, on his nose, a knife, a radish, a plate of soup and a
lighted candle. "Cleverness" is a valuable asset but only up to a
certain point, and I know of one unfortunately "clever" young
chap who almost completely ruined a promising social career by
the unexpected failure of one of his pet juggling tricks and the
consequent dumping of a large dish of mashed potatoes on the head
of a vice-president of the Equitable Trust Company. Besides,
people almost always distrust "clever" persons.
It does not "do," either, to "ride your hobby" at a dinner party,
and the real truth as to the cause of the sudden social ostracism
of young Freddie H----, a New York clubman of some years ago (now
happily deceased), is that on one occasion this young fellow, who
had developed a craze for marksmanship amounting almost to a
mania, very nearly ruined a dinner party given by a prominent
Boston society matron by attempting to shoot the whiskers off a
certain elderly gentleman, who happened to be a direct descendant
of John Smith and Priscilla Alden.
Pages:
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149