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Show Marie Corelll's Latest Spasm. Marie Corelli paints a somber picture of modern mod-ern London society in a recent article in the Lady's Realm, on the "Decay of Home Life in England." says the Argonaut. She declares that the love of homer the desire to make a home is far stronger in the poorer classes nowadays than in the wealthy or even the moderately rich of tlie general community, and adds: "Women of the 'upper ten' aie no longer pre-eminent a,s inlers of the home, but are to be seen dally and nightly as noisy and pushing frequenters of public restaurants. restau-rants. The great lady i? seldom or never to be found at home on her own domain, but she may bo easily met at the Carlton, Prince's, or the Berkeley Berke-ley (on Sundays). The old world chatelaine of a great house, who took pride in looking after the comfort of all her retainers, who displayed an active ac-tive interest in every detail of management, surrounding sur-rounding herself with choice furniture, fine pictures, pic-tures, sweet linen, beautiful flowers and home delicates of her own personal make or supervision is becoming well-nigh obsolete. 'It is such a bore being at home!' is quite an ordinary phrase with the gawk-eyed girl of the present day, who has no idea of the value of rest as an aid to beauty, or of the healthful and strengthening influences of a quiet and well-cultivated mind, and who lias made herself what is sometimes casually termed a 'sight' by her skill at hockey, her speed in cycling, cy-cling, and her general 'rushing about,' in order to get anywhere away from the detested 'home.' The mother of a family now aspires to seem as young as her daughters, and among the vanishing graces of society may be noted the grace of old age. Nobody No-body is old nowadays. Men of sixty wed girls of sixteen women of fifty lead boys of twenty to the sacrificial altar . . . .The real 'old' lady, the real 'old' gentleman will soon be counted among the 'rare and curious' specimens of the race. The ''mother who was riot 'married at sixteen' will ere long be a remarkable prodigy, and the paterfamilias paterfa-milias who never explains that he 'made an unfortunate un-fortunate marriage when quite a boy' will rank beside her as a companion phenomenon. We have only to scan the pages of those periodicals which cater specially for fashionable folk to see what a frantic dread of age pervades all classes of pleasure-loving society. The innumerable nostrums nos-trums for removing wrinkles, massaging or 'steaming' 'steam-ing' the complexion, the 'coverings' tor bald heads, the 'transformations' for thin hair, the 'rays' of gold or copper of auburn, which are cunningly cun-ningly contrived for gray or, to use tho more polite po-lite word, 'faded' tresses; the great army of manicurists, mani-curists, uvifrsvurs, and 'beauty specialists' wno, m the mo.'jt cle'er way, manage to make comfortable incomes out of the general panic which apparently apparent-ly prevails among their patrons at the inflexible, unstoppable march of Time all these things are striking proofs of the constant, desperate fight kept up by a large and foolish majority against the laws of God and Nature." Here is Miss Corelli's picture of the daily life of the average "wife" who belongs to the smart set: "She rises languidly from her bed at eleven, and occupies all her time till two o'clock in dressing, dress-ing, manicuring, 'transformiug' and 'massaging.' She also receives and sends a few telegrams. At two o'clock she goes out in her carriage and lunches with some chosen intimates at one or other oth-er of the fashionable restaurants. Lunch over, she returns home and lies down for an hour. Then she arrays herself in an elaborate tea gown and receives a favored few in her boudior, where, over a cup of tea, she assists to tear into piecemeal portions por-tions the characters of her dearest friends. Another An-other 'rest,' and again the business of toilet is resumed. re-sumed. When en grande tenue sne either goes out to dinner or entertains a large party of guests at her own table. A tete-a-teto meal with her husband would appear to her in the light of a positive calamity. She stays up playing bridge till two or three o'clock in the morning, and retires re-tires to bed more qr.less exhausted, anct can oniy sleep with the aid of narcotics. Sne resumes the same useless existence and perpetrates the same wicked waste of time again tne next day, and every day. Her children she scarcely sees, and the management of her house is entirely removed re-moved from her hands. The housekeeper takes all the accounts to her husband, who meekly pays the same, and lives for the most part at his club or at the houses of his various sporting friends. "Home" is for him a mere farce. He knew wnat it was in his mother's day, when his grand old historical seat was a home Indeed, and all the members of the family, young and old, looked upon up-on it as the chief center of attraction, and the garnering point of love and faith and confidence; but since he grew up to manhood and took for his life partner a rapid lady of the new motor school of morals, he stands like Marius among the ruins of Carthage, contemplating the complete wreckage of his ship of life, and knowing Sadly enough that IH he can never sail the seas of hope again." 11 |