The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-09-27
Social Contrasts.

One effect of education and breeding
is to make their possessor shrink from
intimate contact with those SO beneath
him in rank as to retain their rough ma
lures; and hence the cold and exclusive
bearing of the general mass of educated
Englishmen : Englishmen more espe-
cially than Irishmen or Scotchmen; for
among the latter there still exists sort
of feudal respect for rank and birth,
which is only partially represented in
our counties, and in our towns not at
all. Thus it is that the Englishman
intrenches himself within his reserve;
the social equality which prevails in
France, and even in more aristocratic
countries, being among us unknown.
In France, even under republic, there
is less political liberty than in England;
but there is far greater amount OF
social liberty, and the people, in conse-
quence, are more free and more self
respecting. Take, as general exam
pie, the manner in which nearly all
classes in France meet, if they do not
mix, in their ordinary life-in their re-
creations especially. Along the boule-
wards you will see ouuriers taking their
books of beer next to some of the most
pretentious dandies in Paris-men of
rank, perhaps, of position certainly
and nobody is so exclusive as to be an
noyed by their presence. Inside the
restaurant and cafe there is the same
mingling; and there also you may see
not, perhaps, ladies in the society sense
Of the term, but sufficiently respectable
members of the sex, to which the most
exclusive ladies must belong are
not at all discomposed by the presence
of their humber neighbors, who play
their cards and dominoes in a saloon
full of mirrors and gliding, and con-
sumo their cheap refreshments with
full sense of having as much right to
be there as anybody else.
Consider what would happen in
Lone don, in, say, st. James's Hall, if
couple of British workmen took posses
sion of table next to party of ladies
and gentlemen eating Neapolitan ices,
called for two half-pints of beer, and
proceeded to discuss that beverage in
the interval of discussion of an oral
kind. Supposing that the waiter serv-
ed them-which he certainly would not
the ladies and gentlemen would feel
highly scandalized and annoyed, and
would 1oava tho bouea 90 coop a. roo
sible. And not only would their sense
of the outward proprieties be invaded,
but they would be influenced somewhat
by dread of the consequences. For
couple of Englishmen of the class in
question would, am sorry to say, not
be quite safe company for ladies', even
at another table. All working men do
not get drunk, but some of them do;
and it would be quite on the cards that
there would be more beer ordered, and
more after that, and that the tone of the
conversation would not be suitable for
ears polite. The British workman is a
fine, manly, honest fellow, but he has
broad way of expressing himself, par
ticularly after little beer, and he is
very apt to use words-in a perfectly
harmless sense OF very offensive
character. In this respect he has his
representative among French workmen
the least civilized of whom do not
venture into mixed society-but it will
be certainly found that the class gen.
orally in France have great social supe-
riority over the class generally in Eng
land.-Gentleman's Magazine.