The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-06-13
Brahmins and SwelIs.

Society continually tends to classify itself
apart from all other considerations-on lines
marked out by the report of the commissioner
for internal revenue. If the Brattle street
and Temple place of DR.. Holmes's time found
1t odd to be interchanging cards, it would be
quite as odd u expect any such fraterniza-
tion between NJ drray hill or Madison square
and Bleeker street or Sixth avenue. AS the
money-getting faculty is not, as we have hint
ed, apt to go along with the highest culture,
wealthy men are apt to show more shrewd-
ness than aesthetic refinement Wealthy So
ciety tends more and more to sensuous lux
ury, tempered only by superficial culture
which savors at best more of vanity and the
senses than of brain. "Stylish" people fight
shy of Clever people who can't keep step
with them in dress and entertainments, and
may be quietly satirizing them all the while;
"clever' people deal gingerly with ''stylish''
people, unwilling to be drawn into expenses
which they can't afford, and irritable at any
the slightest appearance of condescension or
hauteur in their mutual relations. The two
classes who might naturally unite to form
society thoroughly worthy the name of best,
those who can bring to it all appliances of
hospitality and art and luxury and elegance,
and those who can illume these good things
with the light of the highest intelligence, and
the most refined appreciation, are at odds.
Each set enjoys itself, presumably, after its
OWh idoulOuy DuL uCltucT DTODdDly so well as
in relation with the other might be possible,
while society as conglomerate result can
hardly be said to exist at all. If any one
doubts this he may be easily convinced by
consulting the clever foreigners occasionally
resident among us, who are prone to COM
plain bitterly at the overshadowing and sepa-
rate influence OF money in what should be the
genial democracy of the salon, and the neces-
sity of hunting the financier and the philoso-
nh in xrri1 oil G1Il
such different weapons.
Both parties lose by the understanding.
The Brahmin loses share in much of gayety,
elegance, or even physical luxury which
might allowably come in to add spice and col
or and variety to his more set and restricted
personal habits. The ALTERATION which as
sociates fools, feasts. and fiddles is but super
hcially true. Ascetism is not necessarily
wisdom. clear-headed and liberal man will
not only refrain from condemning cakes and
ale beause he is virtuous, but will take pru-
dent heed to secure his own
share on occasion, and consume it with a
thankful though unperverted spirit. Luxury,
taste, elegance-good things sadly apt to cost
money in these degenerate days-all have
their substantial value, along with the gayety
and nervous stimulus so apt to go with them.
Travel, foreign sojourn, art-study, and the
large and generous habits of assured wealth,
not only tend to cultivate the possessor of
this wealth, but rebound to the pleasure and
advantage of his less favored associates. 1t
does not follow that all the wisdom of the
world is shut in the editor's sanctum the di-
vines desk, or the professors lecture-room.
The easy grace and the polished amenity both
of thought and action, the large, liberal tone
of the best sOlons which wealth SO often
brings with it, are good things in themselves,
and worth cultivation by any, even the most
philosophic. But, on the other hand, the
wealthy cannot but suffer the gravest disad-
vantage from this comparative or total aliena-
ton of what we have chosen to call the
Brahmins. Luxury, splendor, gayety, are all
good, when thought goes with them, With
out it, they are either Indifferent or bad in
themselves, and worse in their tendency. 1t
is impossible to look about at an ordinary re-
ception or ball on ''the Avenue" or 1.-THE
HIP without seeing how completely
wealth needs, for the due development.
in social regards. of ite resources, the in
forming influence OF trained intelligence and
Keen, vital perceptions. The observer will
note with sorrow how often, in this hot-bed
atmosphere, elegance turns to coarse ostenta-
ton, liberal profusion to wasteful and sensu-
Gus extravaganza, wit and gayety to vapld
lmpertinence, dignity to arrogance, and live
liness to vulgarity. Wealthy people, when
themselves intelligent and refined, are among
the first to perceive the danger of the separ-
atiye tendency we have indicated, and dread
nothing so much as to be left to the uncove-
nanted mercies of their magnificent but unin-
teresting associates. ''If you only knew"
said clever woman, "what deadly piece of
business it is to sit out dinner party at the
-, and how one aches to get away to
some people who can talkr'
1t might seem as if republican America,
which has realized so many ideals once
thought chimeIas, might be destined to some
time give reality to this favorite dream of all
far-seeing and sensible people-this genial
and unembarrassed fusion of the really cult
waited, intelligent and virtuous classes in any
given community, without regard to mere
wealth or technical position and with
single eye to the qualities which enable them
to add to the refined and elevated enjoyment
of the whole. Whatever view we may take
as to the ultimate possibility of any such con-
summation, one or two minor influences
would evidently have great weight in the
matter, one or two noticeable errors need
pointing out on the one side or the other.
The ''clever people" of whom we have spok-