Show SOOIETYS GROWING TRAIT Every One Would Talk and No One I Would listen Dy rom strange and unaccountable oversight i society has failed to set me up as the arbiter ot its manners Quite 1 i naturally therefore its manners are J 1 going from bad lo worse In fact I i may sny society is rapidly becoming a v mere association of butlersIn Since f f there may be Mime oldfashioned folk L among my readers who do not under nand the term I will at once define 1 and ilhibtratc > the butterIn by relating t i personal I experience i I wa present at a little social gath r orlnfc so called the other evening Iliad I-liad barn told that I should meet some t of the very bofjt people In New Fork t lucre You know eggs and people are daeslllod ifier much time same fashion f In Near Toil There arc strictly fresh 1 eggs frch eggs and eggs and I tlicro arc very beat people best people and people Of course no QQtly ever ipntionr the bad eggs In cither case Well since I was lo meet tome of the slrlctly fredh no I metro once of the very I 1081T put on my J finest ralmcnl and polished up my clmirepi company murincib manners f Milch by the wav I learned l In the ar and fury AVvst fl hud hardly crossed the threshold of < ne ubltrroom formerly called ll rarrlnrr eon when f would Jiave FJcn a y ors Income for one peep Into a mirror all by mystlf Had I for fatten to put on my necktie or what VUK the matter ltb me that every body stared so and all whispered among lhemsewc9 5 f IhUut there 1 Was going to tell about I the buUirsln not about the rubber I 1 tclto After the Introductions I drifted hart IL quiet corner to get a grip on bry5zlf preparatory to t eta Ing Into con I Jfsatlon hut Ivjforo I could turn I nunu > I was accosted by a vivacious ling tvonian vlvnilty Is another tirod for gabblness nowadays you rt n > vn a I Oh Mr Brooks nrld she with 1 J tort of cxidiliiK look In her upturned I tr ee i fl am just dying to know what i I i f i I your next book Is to be about Do tell me I confess I was not displeased at this It seemed lo argue that fame had run before 7ne here Yet I deemed it imprudent to launch Into so long a story as she appealed to Invite So I thought to toss off a little bon mot and let It J co at that My next book I jbegan with a smile which I always weal when I am about to pay something subtlemy next book Is to be about Have you finished it yet she butted In Yes It Is In the publishers hands It Is to be about Oh how delightful it must he to have nJ publisher1 she butted In again I wrote a story once but Did 0111 What was It about a young man with his hair pasted down butte In Oh It was about = When did you write a story Mildred Mil-dred another young woman butted in You never told ine about What ate you youngsters doing to Mr Brooks a stout middleaged woman complacently butted In Why said Mildred he Is telling us all about his next book There seemed to be an opening form for-m bon mot BO I hastened to shoot It 1 In before the pap should lose I gas merely going to say I remarked re-marked that mv next book is to be about II Is necdless to prolong thin agony Thoro Hoenied to be something about that corner that attracted all the but tersln Thc came by ones and twos and butted butted butted In until the primary topic was burned out of wight and out of mind under Jt tangled mats of unfinished sentences Everybody had something to say but nobody could wait until he said It I finally escaped carrying with me a resolution that I would get that bon mot out of my system if It took all uummer So here It is I was going to tell Mildred and the rest of the company that my next book was to be about 350 paces There by thunder Brooklyn Eagle |