144 MORE POT-POURRI 



It goes against my sense of the fitness of things to 

 put either charity or affection into a treadmill, and force 

 people to give presents at a particular fixed time. Do 

 we not all know the phraseology so often heard in the 

 shops : ' Will this do ? Does it look enough f It won't 

 be much use, but that doesn't matter. Oh ! here's a 

 new book that will do for So-and-so.' I heard of a 

 wretched lady, with rather well-known tastes in one 

 direction, who last Christmas received seven copies of 

 one book. Then there are the presents for dependents, 

 which are chosen in imitation of the luxuries of the 

 master and mistress, — the sham jewel brooch or the 

 shoddy Gladstone bag, which costs fifteen shillings and 

 is supposed to ' look like thirty.' All this kind of thing 

 seems to me false, and many people I know are ready 

 enough to acknowledge what a slavery it is and how 

 undesirable. Some reconcile themselves to the folly by 

 saying: 'Well, it can't be helped, and it's good for 

 trade.' Even if this kind of artificial demand is really 

 good for trade, which many doubt, this has nothing to 

 do with whether it has a good or a bad effect on 

 ourselves, on our chUdren, and on those who sur- 

 round us. 



The giving of wedding presents, though it is continu- 

 ally referred to as a tax, is so essentially useful to the 

 receivers when judiciously done that I not only say 

 nothing against it, but think nothing against it. I 

 remember, in the early 'sixties, a cousin who was the 

 victim of twenty -seven ormolu inkstands; but the prac- 

 ticalness of the present day solves the difficulty of dupli- 

 cates, as the young people, without the smallest conceal- 

 ment, sell or exchange what they do not care about. 



Though few people may agree with my abuse of whple- 

 -^ale presept-givii^g at anniversaries,, I thii^ no one will 

 deny that it tends to destroy some of the most d^jighMjiI 



