The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-07-06
DIFFERENT KINDS OF SNORs

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SNoBs
Thackeray, an authority on the subject.
defines snob to be that man or woman
who is always. pretending to be some
thing better-especially richer or more
fashlonable-than they ire. In this citv
we have snobs of divers orders: the com.
monest and most conspicuous beino the
social, the financial, the Journalistic. the
Literary. the artistic, the influential. the
friendly and the boastful. Not infre.
quently these orders run into one an.
other, but generally they have a certain
kind of distinctness, and excite their own
sort Of contempt. A man NAV be a snoh
without positive pretense-that is. with.
out falsity of assumption; becoming such
by constant parading of the facts or cir
scumstances7 he piques himself upon.
Usually, however, he is an arrant hum.
bug; projecting his verities from his
'1magination, and developing his
merits from his inner con-
sciousness. The social snobs
prevails unlimitedly, and is of: epicene
gender, but often feminine. He Tor she|
is perpetually talking of society, of what
constitutes the best society, of true re.
tinenlent: of shocking --vulg arity, of per.
feet breeding; leaving you to suppose,
and generally intimating, that alt the So
scial avirtness1sRace and distinctions are
monopolized by him. In his assumptions
he is e>st.'tially anti-democratic. anti
republican; reckoning honest worth un
genteel, and inherited property illus.
trious.
Family blood, is one of his favorite
themes. He is fond of saying that it re-
qulres six generations to produce gen
tleman or lady; that those deprived of
that number Of generations may be esti-
mable, excellent peopls, but then they
can be-of course-exactly what they
should be. He likes occasionally to de:
clare himself a thorough democrat, but
only for the sake of being contradicted.
He smiles serenely wh:n he is called a
great aristocrat; denying the charge so
amiably and feeb!y that you see that he
does not want to be believed.
What are his antecedents! 1t is rot
we'll to inquire too closely. He is really
whatever it suits him to be, and his ante.
cecents are of his own making. If he
have money, little or much, and lives
upon his income, he regards labor as un-
worthy and debasing. He is aware that
tho great mass must work; but there are
few of the privileged and elect who
would not stain their hands with toll.
And he, necessarily, is of the few. If he
be poor and obliged to earn his own livli.
hood, he resents his circumstances in
dignantly; Is always deploring his ill lot,
and informing his acquaintances that his
father, or grandfather, or great grand.
father was very rich; that reverses came,
and that the sensitive and naughty family
were forced into the supreme wretched-
ness ofpovecty. He tells how hard it is
for him to reconcile himself to his sur
roundlngs; how he chafes inwardly; how
his pride revolts at the hundred things
he is compelled to do. He is
He never allows you to find out any,
thing concerning him. He is ever in ad-
vance Of you in respect to whatever he
wants to have known. Facts are so awk-
ward and stubborn, when picked up at
random, that he arranges, polishes, and
invents them for his own purpose. No
stories can be prettier than those he re-
lates of himself, apd they have the ad-
vantage of being the first told. Suisse
Quent revelations may discredit them;
but these should not; for, however true,
they ought not to be counted against his
work.
The less the social snob amounts to,
the more he leans upon his ancestors.
They are very convenient folk Being
dead and forgotten, he can present them
IN any shape and hue he chooses. They
were marvelously versatile, according to
his account. They combined extremes,
opposites, even contradictions. They
were tai! and short, stout and slight,
poetical and practical, indolent, indus
trious, self-sacrificing and selfish. courage
Gus: timid, wise and foolish, prudent and
rash, just as it is his interest to portray
them. Their insignifcance--they were
nearly always signifcant--helps him
materially in their presentation. No
one can deny statements of which he has
not the slightest knowledge. Thus the
snob is enabled to- romance and invent
to his fullest satisfaction.
A favorite recreation of this sort of
snob is to boast of his intimate acquaint.
ance with persons he has hardly spoken
to; perhaps has never seen. These are
invariably men and women he thinks of
Importance. They are rich, influential,
distinguished in some manner, and they
must therefore be his familiars. He pre-
faces all his remarks by ''My friend -
told me the other day." "While I was
dining yesterday with my old friend -
'sMy very dear friend - was kind
enough to say etc. The blank, of
course, stands for somebody who is some
body, in the snob's opinion. You will
observe that he never mentions as his
friend any ordinary or unknown person.