Reflection on Washington's Society

One of the things I wish had not disappeared from Washington's social scene is the "walk-in." The walk-in is a single man who shows up to a party even though he was not invited. This became an extremely common practice in late 19th century, early 20th century D.C. when the number of women still vastly outnumbered the number of men. As a result, single women (and their mothers) were desperate to know and socially engage with any single men they could find. Single men around D.C. quickly figured this out and started taking advantage of it by showing up to parties uninvited. Eventually the problem became so widespread that hostesses would have to plan elaborate defenses to keep walk-ins out of their parties. It's a shame this practice disappeared when the male:female ratio evened out. I think I would have enjoyed crashing some parties.