PENRITH HERALD and East Cumberland and Westmorland News. NO. 446 - First Week in Quarter Registered for Transmission Abroad./Price 1D. _____________________________________________________________ SUMMARY OF PASSING EVENTS. An elaborate article in the "New York Times" furnishes some interesting information regarding society in the Empire City. From this article we are glad to learn that indications of improvement, as regards the practice of economy, are on the increase, and that the social relations of the past winter have been nearer the true standard than at any period since 1860. It was the war which had a most pernicious effect by bringing into existence legions of "Shoddyites", who are described as having scattered money to right and left with a fury of extravagance akin to the miners of Australia. Social retrenchment - thanks partly to the misfortunes of the late panic - is now the order of the day, and afternoon receptions, characterised by simplicity, have taken the place of the expensive entertainments which were formerly in vogue. Instead of the old incentives to over-eating and over-drinking, which took the form of hecatombs of birds, piles of fried oysters, lobster salad, punch, and champagne, the guests at the evening "kettledrums" are now supplied with such simple fare as tea, bouillion cakes, and modest sandwiches. An assembly is now recognised, not as an occasion for feasting, but as a social device by which people come to know each other. The growth of the economical spirit - showing that New York has turned over a new leaf - is also exhibited in a decided improvement of the fashion in toilets. While the object of the milliners and of the ladies who employed them seemed formerly to be to produce the least possible effect at the greatest possible cost, little more than half the same quantity of silk is now consumed in the making of a dress. Refinement has begun to reign in the room of display. But perhaps in nothing is the progress of retrenchment more strikingly shown than in the floral shows at entertainments. The outlay in the particular used to be something hardly credible. It is stated that flowers for a single party, especially on bridal occasions, would often cost over five hundred dollars. In many cases the bill of camellias, tribe and tea roses, which was suspended over the heads of bride and bridegroom, cost six hundred dollars, and is rightly described as having been "a masterpiece of folly." In carriages also there has been a steady downcome in prices since the Tammany times. All well-wishers to America must join in the hope that these symptoms of social reform are not merely transitory, and that shoddy extravagance, which was corrupting and deteriorating a great nation, will never again resume its debasing sway.