The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-05-30

process of the sleepers Of Ephesus and sleep genera
ton or two back ia the world Some great genuses
said been born in advance Of their age For my
own part being the Of genius suppose think
must have into the world too late ut least by
lifetime miss the social life which well remember
even in tho days OF my boynood People getting too
grand or too refined, too pirua they like French
word to enjoy themselves Some allowance am viii
ling to make for natural reaction Sick and disguised
and very reasonably, at the animal bent OF our
forefthers pleasures and the into which the
social empe and love OF hospitality too often carried
them their descendants have made rush into the oPpo
site extreme have desire to bring back tho days
when staggered ato drawing rooms under their two
bottles of wine No rational being calls that enjoyment
Whit Il not the serious business e OF grand
fathers and grAndmohes seem to have supposed IT, and
there was mixture Of what evil as we'll as what
good in the sglasses round, which even fair lips were
not ashamed to taste after late supper
But there possible form of social life for English
men intermediate between the registering boon-compan
ionship Of Squire Western and the miserable, un-
healthy suckup form OF intercourse Zone has to invent
spthsts r it out Of indignation. borrow them from
slang naturally I'M English is it) which has of late
years sprung amongst our middle classes niggardly
at once and expensive, encouraging instead Of kindly
feeling and good neIghborshp, petty PRIDE and rivalry
and adsctaton catching ut the shadow OF cold dignity
and refinement which they Imagine to bc the character
itics Of superior station instead Of enjoying heartily and
thankfully the wealth OF social blessngs which lie around
them In their own The state of isolation in which
Of moderate means In most country neighborhoods
lives and from year to year notorious 1t would
men
Of moderate mean chie6y tho village rector and
tho smal landed proprietor This latter class, indeed
for tbs social has for some time boon fast
diminishing. A. to the professional man, call
him. who has every right to take his place among them
1t symptom Of unhealthy tone In English society
that his position of late years has notoously sunk With
few exceptions made In favor Of the man. and not
Of the profession, he is no longer met at tho kind of
table at which he welcomed fifty years ago The law
yer who knows all family secrets, in whose honor
though have the bad taste to call him rascal,
place confidence which seldom find abused the
geon to whose caro- and skill trust livea, our
health our family hopcA and, may almost say, tho
honor Of wives and daughters --these do all
force down into class of society whose hebits
whose tastes thereof = we have right to suppose
whose principles lower than our We complain
of these not being gentlemen and we do all In our
power prevent them having Of the most essential
qualifications, the believing themselves to bs 30
the rector dwes in his little world and finds his excite
ment and amusement for excitement and amusement,
lay it down a rule every healthy mind must have) in
with his dissenters still better with his neghbor
and revered brother or in church politics, narrowing
bis mind by the constant ieading church
newspapers, high low instead of enargihg by the
study Of the wide, open book Of human kind and run
ming up occasionally If the railway station be handy. to
his university town. like miner for q breath of
upper air And the squire of limited acres and
panding family dwells In his little world also, or
probably does not dwell there. but, unable to
afford his house in town for the season. like hs neigh
Dor the NJ p, or to surround himself, when at homo
in the country like him, with q houseful Of pleasant
peopeunlcss be be mad enough to ruin himself In the
attempthe bstsss himself, with his pretty daughters
to the Continent in search of cheap living cheap educa
ton, and perhaps above all, cheap society And tho
lawyer aud the doctor being of oompanionabe DISPOSE
ton try, perhaps to form little world Of their own
sort of double hemisphere and meet and chat their
bottle Of port their brandy and water and discuss the
ghtnsss Of tho quires exchequer the pattern Of hui
mty aud Christian sympathy which is set before them
by their rector lady not much to the improvement OF
their minds progress in their duty towards their neigh
hnr. tha WI ,f
the time to come, when few years hence If my lords
agency turns ont well as he hopes he, too shall be-
independent gentleman possibly take Lease OF
the squire place. or buy it it very
likely to be in the market by that timsdoubtng wheth
he shall find it in his heart to do the right thing and
cut his friend Bous but determining, at oil events,
show the rector that he good he is and fancying
that he Is to be happier when he has high wall
and pair Of double gates to shut him out from the sight
OF his neighbor, and two gentlemen in plush
stand and watch him eat his dinner.
In short the hearty genial old English life is fast dis
appearing the kindly intercourse between house and
house, which swectered life for the young and smoothed
for while the careful brows of the old Is dying away
and what call society is too often sacr-
fee to appearances unreal puppet-ke performance,
which gives pleasure to very few, and imposes upon
body Unless our revenues will allow US to keep
pleasant set Of guests at bed and board in the country
throw ourselves upon club in town. we had
best make ourselves Independent Of kind may
be.
One plea il, every one is so busy in these days. In
spite of Solomons saying that there is "a time for all
things our modern wise men, by their account,
hardly find time for anything. 1t ia not only the
unfortunate mechanics that is driven into state Of
slavery BY his fourteen hours Of daily TOLL and has hol
day rarely that he does not know how it when
1t but what they In their ignorance would
call the unproductye classes have not if you would be-
leve their own pitiable story moment to themselves
They busy always. In the Of the great
Busybody. busy about what
9 Seven hours . sleep, % h.athtul labor seven,