Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1873-03-28


in America none would be foolish enough to
deny. The girl who grows up ..goes out
as matter Of course; tile man who reaches
4 the age OF sixteen is very likely to 90 to
dancing classes. and two years later to balls.
Il But there is no s0clal code, except such as ID
+ imported from Europe, and when you say
imported from Europe," you don't mean
from any one country, but some customs
from England, some from France, some from
i Germany, some new, some old, some bad.
some good, some destined to survive. some
Il nth ,octai le1eas III
this country as 1t is with everything else,
intellectual, moral, and physical--except
such manufactured products as we think it
necessary to exclude by a tariff f-everythiBg
and everybodyis allowed to come and MAIN
tain himself, herself, or itself, if enough can
be found to 1--we on IL ideas, principles,
thoughts, feelings processes and traditions
| that have ever made their appearance in the
world lind in the United Suites common
| field in which the struggle for existence
| results in the survival of the 1ittrst. Nothing
is settled, nothing is liked. There are no
decisions which are final There are no laws
or code of the levfieal kind. A general
sense of social obligation of course exists. 1t
would be impossible for gentleman who
wished to cur a figure in the society of New
York or Boston, to make q habit of '.draw
ing bead'' OIL 8 his hostess whenever
anything went wrong in the eotillon, or uf
picking the pockets OF his felloM-guests: it
would be out of the question for a waiter to
sit dewn to the table with the company, or
Tor the ladies at formal dinner party to
remasn,w with the gen.elmen alter the hostess
had gone into the parior. Within these
rather broad limits, however, there is such
an amount Of Gee4em as to fetdef it it an |
imposs bility to say where the true lines are.
1t is absurd in such society as ours to talk |
Of what is allowed, what's permitted, what |
is de rigneuy, and what is not. The idea OF
machinery for their Application is derived /
IRON familiarity with fed states OF society,
in which for generations the means of social /
amusement have been concentrated in the /
same or nearly the same hand. But we have
adopted change as the basis of existence, in
this as in any other branch of life. From
another point of view the matter is still
clearer, When a girl '.comes cut with US,
or man begins to 60 out, the amusement to
which they ere chiefly coDtine,l is dancing,
and it is the dancing together of boys and
girls between the ages OF eighteen and tken-l
ty-two which really constitutes what for
eigners hear Of. when they get their informa-
alton about american Society,"" After that
they in almost all cases marry and settle
down to work. in case of the girls who
remain unmarried retire frona the field,
reconcile themselves 70 a single Life, or take,
in the case Of a few Of the bolder ones, to
some occupation. But meantime new (,
generation has. entered the field. New fresh I,
men and freshmen's sisters are dancing the :
German together; the older set has. disap- y
oeared. Th re are few, a very few Of both j
exes, who wearily keep it up for a few years
onger with much tribulation and difficulty. /
But they are few, and are beginning to have j
gloomy thoughts about the vanity of earthly >
ffairs. They. too, will soon marry or retire.
With this kaleidoscope movement going on, ]
ocial existence cannot produce "SQciety.n !
-Gatary for March, ~, II