Social Invitations and the American Sentinel
By Editor
THE Philadelphia Press says: "Now that the social season is fairly begun, careless hosts with neglected lists are as usual sending out invitations for dinners and dances to men and women long in the grave. A gentleman whose wife has been dead for more than a year, received two cards for teas and one for a dance for her last week. A lady who lost her husband recently was asked to accompany him to two or three entertainments. . . . All these mistakes, with the pain they bring to the living, would be avoided if hosts who are anxious only to crowd their houses on festive occasions, would interest themselves in their acquaintances sufficiently to make a note of the fact when death carries any of them away." This is a good comment on what are called "social entertainments." The fact that the fashionable people are accustomed to send out invitations on much the same plan that a business firm sends out its circulars, and with as little personal interest in those to whom they are sent, must be highly gratifying to the guests. But then since the main object of those who attend is simply to fill their stomachs at somebody else's expense, it is doubtless just as well. Tastes differ, but we do not envy them their "good times." THE American Sentinel, which has been promised so long, will be issued promptly on time, January, 1886, according to note published last September. Sample copies were sent to the General Conference, and were received with great favor. The following from the prospectus of the Sentinel, will give the reader a better idea of what it is to be, than he can get without reading the paper itself:— "The AMERICAN SENTINEL, an eight-page monthly journal, devoted to the defense of American institutions, the preservation of the United States Constitution as it is, so far as regards religion or religious tests, and the maintenance of human rights, both civil and religious. It will ever be uncompromisingly opposed to anything tending toward a union of Church and State, either in name or in fact. Single copy, per year, 50 cents; to foreign countries, 2s. Address, AMERICAN SENTINEL, 1059 Castro St., Oakland, Cal."