Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1854-05-06
aYoune America in Society.

ASAA6 A0ASAAS0
America society, at least in our cities, Is
fast becoming both silly and stupid. Young
America" reigns paramount in it. Boys,
who but yesterday were being fogged fot
false Latin, and girls who have Just escaped
from pin-a-fores and bread and butter, take
on themselves all the airs of grown-up peo-
pie, actually thrusting their parents aside,
and assuming the entire control OF the
amnsements. At most parties the tone IS
given by comparative children. Concerted
youngsters, on whose chin the down has
scarcely begun to appear, strut about IN
high shirt collars, short tailed coats. deep
cuffs, and tight pantaloons; take the head OF
cotilIons, as If BY right of precedence; affect
to be as blaze as a noble of the aneien regime,
and annoy women, old enough to be their
mothers, and with more sence in a finger
than these little monkeys have in all their
bodies, with ridiculous compliments, absurd
criticisms on music, or slang intended for
wit. Little misses, also. with bare shoulders,
bare arms, and minds more bare than either.
look com,emptuously around and express
their imperial wonder that the hostess could
be so stupid as to invite so many married
ladies'. In American society it is, at pres
emf, the day of small things"
The conversation at these social assem-
blies is what might be expected from the
character of those who control them. 1t is
as fiat as stale beer, and as insipid as skim
milk. The little girls giggle. and the little
boys look solemn: the former smooth down
their dresses, and the latter pull up their
collars: but with this difference, they behave
much alike. At the supper table, they push
forward into the most prominent places /;
help themselves first; scatter terrapin,
cream and jellies Unfortunately over the
dresses of such married ladies as happen to
be in their way drink what they elegantly
call aIots" of champagne; and keep up
such an incessant chattering and laughing,
that nobody, as the phrase goes, "can hear
their own ears.o
1t would be fortunate; however, if "Young
America" confined its presumptuousness to
parties. But the lady who has opened her
house is subjected, for days afterwards, to
the morning visits of boys seeking to play
the fine gentleman, who talk to her in a
style half silly and half %impudent, treating
her as if she were still unmarried and this,
though they were not invited to her ball,
perhaps, but only came with some female
guest, and though they know, or ought to
know, that the mother Of a family, in Amer
lea, has something better to do of mornings,
than to listen to the empty talk OF idle young
fools. #
Yet. it must be confessed, this sovereignty
of "Young America" is partly the fault of
grownup people. Married women too
generally subside into household drudges;
neglect the cultivation of mind and manners;
and, by abdicating their true position 10
society, make way for the usurpation of the
misses and masters that polk We do not
advocate the disregard Of domestic duties.
But we contend that their fulfllment is
quite compatible with a proper degree of
social recreation, and that, indeed. a wife
and mother is healthier, in both mind and
body, for occasional relaxation in society.
Moreover. as a general tale, women do not
begin 10 think till they are married. A
man Of sense finds the conversation Of a raw
girl insufferably stupid. for it has lost the
na,uete of childhood without acquiring the
solid character of experience in life; and
intelligent women complain continually Of
the annoyance Of having to talk to conceited
boys. Why do not the real heads Of society,
therefore, assert their supremacy, and, by
putting down the reign Of the Mazourka,
the Schottisch, and their concomitant,
aYonng America restore to society a
higher tone? The informed, the intelligent,
and the really weli-bred, who now avoid
what is called society, would then return to
it, and a party would become a place for
the exchange Of ideas, and grow to be a
rational amusement. But, while "Young
America keeps the head, the heels will
carry it all hollow y against the head.
ASt Philadelphia Ledger.