The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1873-11-01
2Oliscellaneous.
The kiG IWIleS.

The t'id Iypes.
From Scribners for November.
The country bred men and women who have
reached the age of fifty years are all able to
call picture-lying now far back in the mel
low atmosphere Of the past of band of chill
dren, standing hand in hand by the side of the
dusty highway, and greeting with smile and
bow and "curtsy" every adult passenger whom
they met on their way to and from school
They were instructed ia this polite obeisance
by their teachers. 1t a part of the old
New England drill, which, so far as We know,
has been entirely discontinued. We do not re-
member to have seen such sight as this for
twenty five years 1t would BE- such old
fashioned affair to witness now, that multitudes
would only reward it with a smile of amuse-
ment; yet with all our boasted progress can
we show anything that is better or more sug-
gestive of downright healthy good breeding?
Are the typical boy and girl of the period bet
ter hammered, more reverent, more respectful
toward manhood and won anhood, more defer
entail to age2 Do they grow up with more re-
gard for morality, religion, law. than they did
then ? Alas with all our books and our new
processes of education, and the universal sharp
ness of the juvenile intellect OF the day, we
miss something that was very precious among
the children OF the old time-reverence for men
and women, systematic courtesy in simple
forms, and respect for the wisdom of the pulpit,
the school-room and the freside. If we were
called upon to describe the model boy or girl,
we should be obliged to call up the old type
the rude, healthy lads and lasses who snow
balled each other, battled with each other in
spelling bouts, and imbibed the spirit of rever-
ence for their elders with every influence of
church and school and home. We have made
progress in some directions, butn some we have
sadly retrogaded. Our boys are all young men,
and our girls are iearfully old. Our typical
child has no longer the spirit of a child.
Occasionally, we meet what are popularly
denominated gentlemen of the old school,
We have only enough of them among us to
make US wish that we had many more,-men
of courtly dignity, of unobtrusive dress, of man
ners that seem a little formal but which are,
nevertheless, the manners of gentlemen. They
| remind us of the worthless of the old colonial
time, and of the later time of the Revolution
of Washingtc-and Madison ~ S-a n Llin--
of men whom all revered, and to whom al
gave obeisance. Into what has this style OF
men grown, or into what have they been de-
graded? Looking where they would be pretty
certain to congregate if they were in existence,
we see them not Has any one seen them at
Newport during the past season !? Have they
abounded at Saratoga? Have they been found
in dignified and graceful association with the
President of the United States at Long Branch
Are they presiding over municipal affairs in our
great cities? Do they enter largely into the
composition of Congress, even after we have
subtracted the gamblers and carpet-baggers p
If we have them in considerable numbers,
| where are they? Certainly they have either
ceased to be reproduced in our generation, or
they are so much disgusted with the type of
men met in public life and fashionable society
that they studiously hide themselves from ght.
There is little comfort in either alternative, but
| we must accept one or the other.
Progress has doubtless been made in many
things. We are richer, better clothed, better
| foJ hattie odu tod fhon
used to be. Our railroads run everywhere; our
well-nigh exhaustless resources have been
broached in q thousand directions; we count
the increase of our population by millions the
emigrations of the world all move toward us; /;
colleges, churches and school-houses have gone
up with the building of the States, and the
States themselves have multiplied so rapidly
that not one American in ten knows exactly
how many are in the Union. All this is true !;
| but during the past twenty-five years we Judge
| that we have made no improvement in the ty-
pcal American gentleman. If they could
have walked through the pazzas of the Grand
| Union at Saratoga, how many equals would
| they have met?-how many men who in man
ners, dignity, culture and spirit would have felt
| at home with them? The old type of merch-
ants-the old type of statesmen-the old type
of gentlemen-surely we have not improved
| upon these. The restless, greedy, grasping,
time serving spirit of our generation has vita
at improvement we may well go back to the
| past for our models.
What shall we say about the old type of wo-
| men as compared with the present representa-
| tives of the best of the sex? The sanity, he
roic, frugal, industrious wives and mothers of
the earlier days of the Republic-have we i'm
proved upon them? Have the latter-day doc
trines of woman's rights made them more mod
| est, more selt-denying, more virtuous, better
wives and mothers, purer and more active
| Christians, better heads of the institution of
home, more lovely companions for men? We
| are aware that the answer to those questions
| involves the approval or the condemnation of
| the doctrines themselves, and it is well that the
| men and women of America be called upon to
see and decide upon those doctrines from this
point of view Is the type of the American
woman improved? Has it been improved in
the last twenty years, especially inside the cir
| cles that have taken the improvement of the
| position of woman upon their hands? Ameri
ca is full of good women. AS a rule they are
| undoubtedly better than the men, but certain
| ly the men whose instincts are true are attrac-
| ted most to those women who approach nearest
| to the ancient type.
The final result of our civilization is to be
| reckoned in character. If this is not satisfac-
| tory, nothing is satisfactory. If we are not
rearing better children and ripening better men
and women than we were a century ago, then
something is radically wrong, and the quicker
we retrace our steps to see where we have di-
verged from the right track, the better. The
I typical American-man, woman and child-is
the representave product of all the institutions
and influences of our civilization. As the type
improves or degenerates, do these institutions
| and influences stand approved or condemned
| before the world. Progress cannot be reckon
| ed in railroads and steamboats,, counted in
money, or decided in any way by the census
tables. Are we producing better men and bet
ter children and women? That is the question
which decides everything and we have called
attention to the old types in order that we may
arrive at an intelligent conclusion.
| THE LIONS FEAR OF MAN.-Lichenstien says
| tbot Tho African hunfara avail themselves of