Page:Book of Etiquette, Volume 1, by Lilian Eichler.djvu/168



The origin of the "social" call dates from the Stone Age, when the head of a family used to leave a roughly carved block of stone at the door of another, as an expression of good-will and friendship. The most marked development in calls and visiting is traced among the Orientals, and especially the Chinese. In China, even to-day, the social call is practically a sacred ceremony, and it is only the very lowest coolie who does not pay regular calls upon his friends and neighbors.

It is contrary to the American ideal to develop or encourage highly complicated social ceremonies, and even the most formal call in this country to-day is simply a meeting of good friends. With the rush of modern life and the multitudinous opportunities which it offers for diversion and instruction there is a tendency to neglect one's social calls. It is a great pity, for nothing is quite so precious as one's friends, and was it not Emerson who said, "Go often to the house of thy friend for weeds choke the unused path"?

In the city, formal calls are made between four and six o'clock in the afternoon. Morning calls are considered