The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-03-21
THE BOY OF THE PERIOD.


He is q sort of asteroid in the social system. He
and his kind move In widely elliptic orbits of
large inclination cutting society at certain modal
points like those hundred and odd vagrant Jumps
Of cosmic matter that If put together would hardly
make up the mass OF q respectable planet. Per-
heps. equally Ike them he may serve TO demon.
strate some yet 10 be discovered Bodean law rul.
ing the little universe of which he forms 30 nu-
merous yet trivial part. Perhaps he may
have use. as all things have but then the de.
signs Of heaven are inscrutable and not to be
found out by searching. He is boy of the Pc
Rod, but not the boy of the PERIOD for, unlike the
periodic girl, whose generic and specific types
have been somewhat ungenerously determined In
the able monograph Of the Saturday Review, the
boy is protean and belongs TO q class rather than
TO q species. The girl can hardly be looked upon
as mere makeweight, like q printers leads that
serve to space out the leading article more prom.
inenty, that high distinction being reserved for
the society boy and unhesitatingly accepted by
him. The society makeweight Is not always such
by virtue of brains, wealth, or family. weak and
inane gentility of dress and manner being about
all that is wanted to separate him from the herd
that lies huddled together one grade lower. He
is manifesty step above the urbane shopkeeper,
and, as things 60 with us, equally removed, con-
trary wise, from the fast young man who inherits
a well-crammed deed. box. He is most frequently
professional and of professional ancestry. His
college course, by mixing him with young men of
money, gives him his first insight into that com.
pick and unsocial scheme msnsmed society, 10
Insignificant In any orbital lacuna that may be
open to him. He dances. and this enables him to
fill up {" German; ~ in fact, dancing well is about
hall his social capital. He can talk, il not bril-
liantly at least integibly, and this brings him
into demand to help fill parlor and perhaps save
from wall fowership some poor thing around
whom the cold blasts that hurtie In the zone the
wrong side Of thirty have blown roughly. BE is
not always fortunate enough to oll 10 the tropical
luxuriance of society n its teens, for he Is gene
rally understood not to be marrying man-his
means being limited. This keeps the social make
weight out Of the two extremes OF model domes.
ITCHY and model vicici0usness In q fashionable
way With him a CHEEKY wife and fast nag,
costly club and chubby curly pate TO fondle on
his knee, are equally remote objects OF ambition.
He would be disspated II he could-but how
Wanting the wherewithsl TO do so, he makes
virtue Of his fate, limits himself TO billiards and
cigars. and ticks up the crumbs that fall from the
social table with 1nc0mmendable lack Otto use
humble word-spunk. And 80 he drifts along,
gradually developing cynical turn toward the
girl Of the period. and is notably eloquent on her
extravaganza and unftness for wifehood, mean
ing. of course, unftness TO be the mate OF such
himself. Yet be sees the girl of the period at her
best and she charms him in direct ratio to her
extravaganza and wiiey un6tness. Her parlors
are open to him, her dress and jewery as coQuet.
tishly worn for him as for nobler quarry, her
mamma tolerates him more perhaps than II he
were young Van Dolleh or Foozleoye the whisky
list, and her papa believes In his entire innocuous
ness,
at odd times patronizes him by buying his freshly
daubed canvas or sending him hopeless note for
collection. he endures all this without wincing,
for the breath OF society has become vital in his
nostrs. He is somewhat refined, even q little OF
a Sybarite; 80 what wonder that he takes kindly
to women who speak low and dress with an eye to
harmony of color, who waltz ethereally and are at
their ease with him because there Is no necessity
of keeping him at arms length. he blooms out
of sn eveniug-not in Haunting way, for your
Eaxu iuhf n linn N
dress and ties and bosom studs-and enjoys
easy chairs and softened lights and
dainty voices and all the other allurements
of company parlors to the full as much as their
owners, and pays therefor in small talk and gen.
eral usefulness And his reward comes when he
receives some thick and creamy card of invitation
to sl the ungng delights Of crash foor.cloths and
Strauss music and gldces ndpotitdtnes and chairs
knotted lovingly in pairs with the flmiest of
handkerohiefs-six hours Of society and bliss. He
is not domestic animal. How can you expect it
of him in his hall bedroom in Mrs. Myers fash.
ionable brown-stone mansion in Thirty leventh
street. not stones throw from his loved avenue?
He sleeps therein and dresses therein-iti is chilly
and ireless at times-and gets out of it soon az
he can. His waking hours fuctuate between the
studio officedesk and society; but in the rarer
event of his being in small way person of
leisure his time is wholly given to the one smbi-
ton of his life. On Sunday you may see him be-
fore some stylish church, blandly facing the out
coming congregation, with natty gloves and fault
less lsppels, and figure just gently limiting an
underlying corsage, himself pleasing himself, until
his smile meets kindred smile and two radiant
beings drift along with the current Of society,
saluting and saluted, each conscious at HEARTH
they would but take the tronble to think ii out
that there is nothing in IT, that their intercourse
Is a shsm buresque on the true relations OF life.
The same couple are not soon seen together again
this phase OF the society man being eminenty
impartial in his attentions 70 the sex. He cannot
lead IN any or set. so he must needs move over q
limited area in several circles In this connection
another aspect Of the social makeweight's charac-
ter looms up he is vain of the argeness Of his So
t tss hnnereds With denzens Of the sssmsno
avenue numerousy represented, his evenings are
pre-engsged for weeks 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 acQusntances though few friends, and his
condolences are apt TO De with the other sex. Ia
fine, as one who would describe q gem by its
facets must at last call 1t by lis NAME so the peci
fcation of an average sscond-rate society man
must be reduced TO this-that he is nothing more
nor less than what he is a society makeweight.
But one Of the saddeet thoughts growing out of
this examination is the question that must inev-
itably rise in every thinking mind-What becomes
of all the makeweightss IL Is analogous to the
old query about the pins, and equally incapable
of answer. Does he ever grow old? Does he
every marry and, II so, in what sphere Does he
ever accomplish any useful purpose in life beside
being gentleman. or something very like II, by
virtue OF bis gentiliiyI Who ever heard of him
as any other than q society man. He and his
conReners are numbered among us by thousands;
their faces grow familiar TO Us night after night in
the German" they jam the Academy at the
charity ball. they fling occasional bouquets 70 the
blonde sirens Of the stage, and after decade or
SO of this sort Of thing hey are not They hang
on TO socetys skirts for time, psrtsking Of its
dizzng whirl without aiding il, TIL at length the
tired hands relax their hold and the society make
weight drops OF into obscurity, perchsnce that of
q cherries old bachelorhood Of drndgery, per
chance that Of a growing family snd slatternly
household in some suburb with It's sttendant rail-
way sgonies, perchance directorsbip in life-as-
eonsolstIon i hat he Is never missed. That SO.
ciety for which, In truly touching and unsparing
devotion, be has given up all, sweeps on its way