The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-09-05
A Study of SOciety--Comparisons with
our English Cousins.
[Mra. Stowe In the chrlstian rnlnn1

lMrs. Stowe in the Christian Union.l
Saratoga is like. great city; the
throng is 30 great, the succession so con-
slant, that one has comfortable sense
that one can do as one pleases without
exacting passing remark. When the
bread colonade, two or three hundred
feet long, is full of promenaders, with
every variety of toilet, positive, COM
parative, and superlative-you feel that
the most you could do, had you the
means, would be nothing hero and the
least you can do answers every purpose,
since nobody gives more than passing
glance at anything. 1t is q constant
tide of faces and forms ebbing and Aow-
ing, and the second blots out the first,
and the third the second-as the waves
of the sea efface each other.
AS study of American society visit
at Saratoga is thing quite worth ones
while. There are peculiarities in it
distinctly American, and resulting di-
rectly from the habits of republican So
ciety, which are worth notice. One of
these is the ease and independence of
the life. Nobody is afraid of anybody.
There are no visible bolts and bars, no
boundaries of frigid reserve such as OBJ
tain in society which has been broken
into classes, each one of which feels it
necessary to keep off the other from its
acquaintance. In an English hotel or
watering-place, for example, it would
be impossible, as here, to get at the
heart of English society and observe the
daily manners and goings on of the best
classes. What are called the better
classes in England are fenced in by
every national custom and regulation,
and as completely secluded as the ladies
of the Grand Seignor's harem. There
are no common parlors where all may
meet-no common railroad cars. An
English family travels like an island
surrounded by water, or as if genii lifted
up the house and took it from place to
place. The family, whole and compact,
goes everywhere and keeps by itself.
One may travel on the same railroad,
put up at the same hotels, with the best
English families, and see no more of
them than if one were anywhere else.
A servant secures compartment-car for
their sole and separate use. Closc-veil-
ed, and looking neither to the right nor
left, they enter it. At the hotel their
suite of apartments is engaged. They
pass from the retirement of the car to
the retirement of the hotel, and disap-
pear in mysterious shadows.
The fifteen hundred gentlemen and
ladies who were making Congress Hall
their home while we were there were of
our best class-and we say, with honest
pride, that the best class of English So
ciety has no better. There was no flash
and dazzle, no predominance of shoddy
aristocracy; all was quiet, easy, genial,
and refined. The American family of
the best class was there we'll represent
ed. The father and mother, the young
collegian, the pretty daughter. And
here we must stop and indulge in lit
tie gush of admiration at these dear,
charming, high-bred American girls.
Their beauty is of style so delicate; it
is SO much the expression of character
it has so many positive intimations OF
suppressed power and ability, that it is
all the more interesting. We watched
several of these little queens from day
to day without detecting an inharmo.
NOUS movement or an unbecoming ges-
ture-everywhere and always they ap.
peared coolly mistresses of the situa-
ton. This piquant little air of entirt
self-possession and ability to look any
position in the face, is one of the pecu.
liarities of our young lady yhood, and
when veiled by perfect modesty is 6
wonderful charm.
As to toilet matters, we saw much ev.
idence of good taste. The general av.
erage was in that precise distance be-
hind extremes which marks good SENSE
and refinement The female costume o.
the season, by the by, is in a much more
hopeful and becoming way than it wa
two or three years ago, when the demi
monde of Paris sat as a queen, and haC
seen no sorrow. 1t has not now thai
scraggy, wild, high-fying air, tina
quantity of jingle and tinsel and furbc
low that was at one time the desolatine
fashion. Toilets of modest colors anC
harmonizing shades of one color have
taken the place of the startling con
trasts and theatrical fashions that one,
obtained, and there have been few in
stances of vulgar over-dressing. In
deed, nothing has been more suggested
by the whole tone of dress, air, anC
manner among the hundreds wh,
thronged our halls or sat at our table
than the idea of culture and refinement
Quiet ease, self-possession, and gooi
breeding have marked the tone of SO
ciety.