The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-02-18
ERMS $500 PER ANNUM In ADyANcp
American "Societr y

OF course that there is plenty Of society in
American none would be foolish enough 10
deny The girl who grows up ''goes out
as a matter of course; the man who reaches
the age of sixteen is very likely to 60 to dane
ing classes, and two years later to balls.
But there is no social code, except such as is
imported from Europe, and when you say
.'imporsed from Europe you don't mean
f,om any one country, but some customs from
England, some from France, some from Ger
many, some new, some old, some bad, some
good, some destined to survive some to per-
ish. 1t Is in fact with social ideas in this
country as IL is with everything else intaI-
lectual, moral, and physical--excapt such
manufactured products, as we think " -
essary TO exclude by tasiff-eyerythins ns as'5
everybody is allowed to come ana mafntsi,, 3
himself, OF herself, or itself, If enough can ~,
found to live on. All IDEAS, prino;nlss
thoughts, feelings, processes, and traditions
that have ever made their appearance in the
world find in the United States a common
field in which the struggle for existence re-
suits in the survival of the fittest. NOTHING
is settled, nothing is fixed. There are no
laws or code of the levitical kind A general
sense OF social obligation of course exists. n
would be impossible fer gentleman who
wished to cut figure in the society of New
York or Boston, to make habit of ''drswino
a bead" on his hostess whenever ANYTHING
went wrong in the cotilion, or of picking
the pockets of his feliow-guests; it would be
out of the question for waiter to sit down
to table with the company, or for the ladies
at formal dinner party to remain win
the gentlemen after the hostess had gone
into the parlor. Within these rather broad
limits, however, there is such an amount
OF freedom as to render it an impossi-
bility to say where the true lines are
1t Is absurd in such society as dlrs to taIk
OF what is allowed, what is permitted, what
IS de r5gueur, and what is not. The idea OF
the necessity of social ordinances, and the
machinery for their application is derived
from familiarity with fixed states of society,
IN which tor generations the means of social :,
amusement have been concentrated in the
same or nearly the same hands. But We
have adopted change as the basis ofexstence.
in this as in other branch of life From anotH-
er point OF view the matter is still clearer
When girl "comes OUT with us, or a man
begins to go out, the amusement to which
they are chiefyconfned is dancing and a
it is the dancing together Of girls
teen and twenty-five which really constitutes
what foreigners hear of when they get their b
in ormat:on about american Society,"" Az
ter that they in almost all cases marry and
settle down to work, in the case of the girls
who remain unmarried retire from the field
reconcile themselves to single hfe, or take, in
the Use of few OF the bolder ones, to some
occupation. But meantime new generation
has entered the field. New freshmen and
freshmen's sisters are dancing the German to- @
gether; the older set has disappeared There
are few, very few of both sexes who
wearily keep it up for few years longer with
much tribulation and difficulty. But they
are few, and are beginning to have gloomy Il
thoughts about the vanity of earthly affairs. +
They, too, will soon marry or retire. Wtth
this kaleidoscope movement going on, social
existence cannot produce ''Society. ."-"Ne- q
bulCg, "in GALAXY for March. i-lll.- -s,s4