are sent to Mr. and Mrs. ----, the mother
and father of the bride, and another set of cards sent to Mr. and
Mrs. ----, the bride and bridegroom.

=THE VISIT OF EMPTY FORM=

Not so many years ago, a lady or gentleman, young girl or youth, who
failed to pay her or his "party call" after having been invited to Mrs.
Social-Leader's ball was left out of her list when she gave her next one.
For the old-fashioned hostess kept her visiting list with the precision
of a bookkeeper in a bank; everyone's credit was entered or cancelled
according to the presence of her or his cards in the card receiver. Young
people who liked to be asked to her house were apt to leave an extra one
at the door, on occasion, so that theirs should not be among the missing
when the new list for the season was made up--especially as the more
important old ladies were very quick to strike a name off, but seldom if
ever known to put one back.

But about twenty years ago the era of informality set in and has been
gaining ground ever since. In certain cities old-fashioned hostesses, it
is said, exclude delinquents. But New York is too exotic and intractable,
and the too exacting hostess is likely to find her tapestried rooms rather
empty, while the younger world of fashion flocks to the crystal-fountained
ballroom of the new Spendeasy Westerns. And then, too, life holds so many
other diversions and interests for the very type of youth which of
necessity is the vital essence of all social gaiety. Society can have
distinction and dignity without youth--but not gaiety. The country with
its outdoor sports, its freedom from exacting conventions, has gradually
deflected the interest of the younger fashionables, until at present they
care very little whether Mrs. Toplofty and Mrs. Social-Leader ask them to
their balls or not. They are glad enough to go, of course, but they don't
care enough for invitations to pay dull visits and to live up to the
conventions of "manners" that old-fashioned hostesses demand. And as these
"rebels" are invariably the most attractive and the most eligible youths,
it has become almost an issue; a hostess must in many cases either invite
none but older people and the few young girls and men whose mothers have
left cards for them, or ignore convention and invite the rebels.

In trying to find out where the present indifference started, many ascribe
it to Bobo Gilding, to whom entering a great drawing-room was more
suggestive of the d