The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-03-20
TIE BOY OF THE PERIOD.
IFrom the hound Table.l

TIE BOZ OF THE PERIOD. t'S
From the Round Tablet
| He is sort of asteroid in the social sys-
tenn. He and his kind move in the widely
elliptic orbits: OF large inclination, cutting So
and oedea odd non Jumps Of
| ter that if put together would hardly make
up the mass Of a respectable plsnet. Per-
monstrate rome yet-to-be-discovered Bodean
| law ruling the little universe of which he
forms so numerous yet 80 trivial part. Per-
have; have but then the designs Of heaven are in
scrutable and not to be found out by
but not he boy OF the periol, for, un,,
specific types have been somewhat ungen-
erouRly determined in the able monograph Of
the Saturday Review, the boy is protean and
belongs TO o class rather than to q species.
The girl can hardly be looked upon as mere
makewosght, like printers leads that serve
| to space out the leading article more pro mi-
nently, that high distinction being reserved
for the society boy and unhesitatingly accept
ed by him. The society makewelght is not
always such by virtue Of brains, wealth or FAM
iy,a weak and inane gentlliJy Of dress and man
ner being about all tina, is wanted to separate
him from the herd that lies huddled together
! cEs grade lower. He is manifestly step above
the urbane shopkeeper, and, as things go with
us, equally removed, contrary-wse, from the
fast young man W. Wa9 = 'nner,ts ert well cram
fessional and Of professional ancestry. II 8
college course, by making him with young
men OF money, gives him his first insight into
society, in which it is speedily his aim to
revolve, although insignificant, in any erhl-
tGl !cc1nd that may be open to- him. He
dances, and this enables him to fill up q
his social capital. He can talk, II not bril-
| liautly at least intelligbly, and this brings
him into demand to help to fill parlor
and perhaps save from wal-howership some
that hurtle in the zone the wrong side Of
thirty have blown roughly. He is not al
ways fortunate enough to loll in the tropi-
is generally understood not to be marry.
ing man-his means being limited. This
keeps the social makeweight out OF the two
yiciousness in fashionable way, With
vnd chubby curly pate TO fondle on his knee,
are equally, remote objects of ambition. he
Wanting the wherewithal to do SO. he makes
virtue Of his fate, limits himself to billiards
and cears and Slicks up the crumbs that fall
from the social table with unoommendable %
80 he drifts along, gradually developing cyni
cal turn toward the girl Of the period, and is
notably eloquent on her extravagance and un-
ness to be the mate of such as himself. Yet he.
sees the girl of the period at her best, and she
charms him in direct ratio to her extravaganza
and wiioly unfitness. Her parlors are open to
him, her dress and jewelry. as coquettlshly
worn for him as for nobler quarry, her
mamma tolerates him more perhaps than il he
were young Van Dollah or Foozleoyle the whis-
keyist, and her papa believes in his entire in
nocuousness, extends the pudgy. grasp OF
friendship. and at odd times patronizes him by
buying his freshly daubed canvas, or sending
HIM hopeless note for collection. He endures
all this without winGng for the brea VI qf So
somewhat refined, even q little of Sybarlte;
80 what wonder that he takes kindly to women
who speak low and dress with an eye to har-
their ease with him, because there is no neces-
sity OF keeping him at arms-iength. He blooms
out Of an evening--not in flunting way, for
your makoweight knows the value OF modera-
enjoys easy chairs, and softened lights, and
dainty voices, and all the other alIurements OF
company pariors to the full as much as
their owners, and pays therefor in small
comes when he receives some thick and
creamy card of invitation to all the tangling
delights of crash foor-cloths and Strauss
ted lovingly ing % in pairs with tie amiest % Of hand
kerchiefs, and-slx hours of society and bliss.
He is not {; {, domestic dom an%al n How can you
Myers fashionable brown stone mansion in
his loved avenue He sleeps thereiu Jand
dresses therein-it Is chilly and fireless at
His waking hours fuetuate between the studio
or office desk and society; but in the rarer
event OF his being in q small way person OF
leisure his time is wholly given to the one am
him before some stylish church. blandly facing
the out-comane congregation, With Yaatty
gloves and faultless lappels. and a. figure just
gently limiting and underlying oorssge, h,m-
kindred smile and, TWO radiant beings drift along
with the current of society, saluting and salut
ed, each conscious at heart-if they would but
take the trouble to think it ont that there is
nothing in it, that their Intercourse is q sham,
o burlesque on the true relations Of life. The
same couple are net seen together again-this
phase Of the society man being emlnently i'm
partial in his attentions to the sex. Hs cannot7
lead in any one set, 80 he must needs move
over limited area in several circles. In this
connection another aspect of the social make
weights character looms up; he is vain OF the
largeness OF his social acquaintanc New
Years list ia Tar in the hundreds, with deni-
zens of the talismanic avenue numerously re-
presented his evenings are pre- engaged for
weeks ahead, and by his own showing no man
is harder worked than he or more relieved by
the coming OF the Lenten season. He has
many acquaintances. though few friends,. and
his oonfdanees are apt to be with the other
sex. In fine, as one who would describe gem
by it's facets must at last call 1t by it's name,
SO the specification Of an average ,seoond-rate
society man must be reduced to this-that he
is nothing more nor less than what he isi-a
Society Makewelght.
But one OF the saddest thoughts growing ont
of this examination is the question that must
inevitably rise in every thinking mind, what
becomes OF all the makeweights? It is anaa-
gous to the old query about the pins, and
equally incapable OF answer. Does he ever
what sphere2 Does he ever accomplish any
useful purpose in life besides beng gentle
man. or something very like it, BY virtue of
his gentihty? Who ever heard OF him as other
than a society man? He and his oongenees
are numbered among us by thousands;
their faces grow familiar to US night after
night in the German" they jam the Academy
| quets to the blonde sirens Of the stage, and
after decade or so Of this sort OF thing they
are notl They hang on to soclety's skirts for