The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 42

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER'S WOMAN'S MAGAZINE PAGE FOUR THIRTIETH OF AUGUST, 1003 of toe fiIJ fl 11 LCUyi 1 ImMEm i -0 r1'' i.a i i i- 'if. aiAiihn ii "-W7I; ft- f- i i A 1 -1- wmmlir'J- Mw) I'--V-'( OWN HAlDOT-12-WOL When the caller arrives and is seated the maid brings in the tray. If there is no maid the bachelor girl may remove the screen and either draw up the table or ask the caller to take a seat by its side. Here he may assist at the tea pouring and, together, the gentleman caller and the bachelor girl may enjoy a cup of tea. The five o'clock tea caller is expected to leave before six.

and when he rises to go the bachelor girl rises also. It is etiquette, when a caller goes, to shake hands with him, and the bachelor girl makes the first move by extending her hand. If she does not do this her caller simply bows and departs. Taking Leave of a Calier The bachelor girl must not help a man on with his overcoat, for it is not good form ever to do this. She must not hand him his hat nor otherwise assist him with his belongings, cane or umbrella.

He is supposed to take care of these himself, and it is the worst of poor taste to aid him. When taking leave the caller may ask if he may call again. But it is taken for granted that he may drop in any afternoon, for a five o'clock tea invitation, once extended, is a permanent one and need not be repeated each time. Or, if she so de sires, and if she feels that the invitation has not been general enough, the girl bachelor may ask him to come again or may make some remark to the effect that she is always at home at five o'clock. The bachelor girl who keeps house in a little flat is allowed certain leeway which is not extended to a young girl in high society.

She can receive callers alone in her flat without a chaperone. She can come and go at all hours of the night without question. She can and often must perform her own household tasks, "doing her own work," from the setting of her table and the washing of the dishes to the scrubbing of the floor. All of these things the bachelor girl can do without losing her place in society. Occasionally, by way of a frolic, her friends assist at the work of keeping house and then there is a merry time over the hanging of the pictures and the setting of the little apartment to rights.

The life of the girl bachelor need not be a lonely one if she will take advantage of the social opportunities offered to her. Nor need it be one that is open to criticism if she will follow the small, little rules of etiquette which govern the life of the sirl who lives alone. HE life of the bachelor girl in a great city is the most of all lives. It is a new type, for. until within a very few years, the bachelor girl was unknown.

If a girl was sent out into the great vorl(4 to earn her living she chose a boarding house as her home, or more, usual still, she went into the home of a friend, there to lead out a tame, gray existence until too old to work, or until rescued by marriage. In those days "old maid" was the term for the bachelor girl and very soon she looked the She aged very young and at thirty was too faded in appearance to be attractive, while at thirty-five she was so old that she -occupied a seat along the wall as a wall flower along with the grandmothers and the very ancient maiden aunts. But to-day there is a new kind of old maid the bachelor girl. And she is not an old maid' at all. She is a young maid, no matter what may be her And she is attractive into the forties and into the fifties, for as long as she remains a bachelor girl there is a'fascination about her.

The bachelor girl who is supposed, by the way, to be very masculine or non-domestic in her tastes, is really the domestic woman in the world. She loves her home. And as soon as she gets into the life a big city she looks around to find a home; and if she does not espy one ready made she makes one for herself. The home of the bachelor-girl is a which, whether' it be large or small, she calls, by courtesy, an apartment. It is sometimes one of many in a large building; and the girl settles down to live her own life in a great structure which holds many lives, all united in little bunches called families.

Her Attractive Home Life But the bachelor girl has no family. It is that which makes her a bachelor girl and which also makes her position peculiar. She lives alone and her companion, at tnost, is a canary or a household pet, for seldom does the bachelor girl keep a maid. 1 The bachelor girlj if she be a professional woman, and usually she is, so arranges her flat that she can do her own 1 crrcat citv is the most interest- work. In the morning the butcher, the baker and all the other home makers call and get their orders and the bachelor' girl hurries away to her professional duties.

Her noon-day meal she takes at some restaurant; and possibly her dinner, too, on busy nights. But as a rule, six o'clock finds her at home, ready to get out her little dining table and put forth the feast of dinner. And this brings the bachelor girl to the first of her day's lessons in etiquette. She has the evening before her, and during the evening her social life is lived. And upon her conduct, from the time the gas is lighted until it is put out at night, depends the social status of the bachelor girl.

During this time she receives her gentlemen friends. She gives her dinners to her own social circle. She makes her calls, for the bachelor girl gets little time forMay-time calling. And in the evening the bachelor girl goes out to the theatre either alone or accompanied, for in the etiquette of the bachelor girl she does not always need an four o'clock coffeeT which is coming to take the place of the five o'clock tea. The Little Tea Table The tea table must be set beforehand and concealed by a screen so that, when the caller comes, the bachelor girl has only to remove the screen, and there will stand the table with its equipment of dishes.

The proper settings for the five o'clock tea table are slices of bread, all buttered and either laid flat in sandwich fashion or rolled, and small sweet cakes. It is not actually necessary that anything be served in addition to these, and the bachelor girl can easily prepare the little tea table, set the kettle, and conceal all with a small screen, which is drawn only part way across the table to await the advent of the chance caller. The afternoon tea is the prettiest form of entertainment for the bachelor girl. It is so simple, so informal, so thoroughly in- dicative of good spirits and good fellowship that it is deservedly the most popular way of entertaining for the single The bachelor girl, it Xvi'l has abundant opportunity for doing the wrong thing, even as she has abundant opportunity for doing the right thing. And she must make no mistake.

She must possess always that nameless charm called "manner." She must know how to receive people. She. must have the gift of light conversation. She must have tact, presence of mind and the ability to say the; right thing at the right time. In My Lad Parlor These are the personal qualities of the bachelor girl if she is to be the popular girl, the attractive girl.

In addition to these she must have a home in which to entertain; and this must be sufficiently large to afford a parlor or reception room. It must be furnished so that it appeals to good taste. A washstand, only partly concealed, a bed-couch which looks as if it were always open, a table which suggests a constant line of cookery; none of. these things is admissible in the reception room of the bachelor girl. Yet it may be cosy.

There is the pot of palms and there are the small fancy articles, the candle sticks, the fans and the bric-a-brac. In the bachelor girl's parlor there may, with the utmost propriety, be the chafing dish equipment; and over its bubbling mysteries the bachelor girl bends in the evening at one of the little frolics which are sure to creep into her life. In her parlor there is, of course, the cosy corner and into this the bachelor girl may bring her souvenirs. And, if she be a bachelor girl of the pronounced type, her room will contain not one but four corners, all cosy. If the bachelor girl can afford to keep a maid her task of entertaining is much simplified, for she has some one to open the door and some one to bring in the tea and to serve dinner.

But even without the maid she can give her little five o'clock teas by having her table set beforehand. From a five o'clock tea standard will hang the tea kettle, giving forth its cheering fumes, or over an alcohol lamp the kettle will bubble ready for the.