The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-06-26
Feminine SnObs.

Feminine SnObs.
1t would seem that there have ever
been class-distinctions and that there
ever must be, but there is no valid rea
son why number of purely artificial
BARRIERS should be raised between the
different sectione of a community. The
creation of these artificial barriers has,
in England, done an immense amount
of harm, inasmuch as it has excited
great deal of ill.feeling, prevented peo-
pie from dratsing together who would
be benefited by communion with each
other, and rendered the condition of
society absurdly anomalous. Nowadays,
society does not consist merely of three
classes but of score or two, the men,
bers of which heartily hate and mis-
trust each other. Indeed, it is not
going too far to say that society is di-
vided into an immense number OF con-
temptible cliques !; the result being that
when hundred people are drown pro-
miscuously together the majority are so
impressed with q set1se Of their impor-
lance and exalted condition that they
proudly decline to condescend to have
anything whatever to say to nine tenths
of those by whom they are surrounded.
A man may have brains, he may have
refined tastes, he may be Woodworking
and upright in all his doings, and he
may be of presentable appearance, but
he is not saved from receiving cruel re-
bluffs, as he journeys through life, from
those who are vastly inferior to him and
might be much improved by friendly in
recourse with him, but who fatter
themselves that they are his superioIs
in position. Now, men are LARGELY re-
sponsible for this melancholy state of
things but we DIRE Inclined to think
that the greater portion of the blame
for what is deplored-must rest upon
feminine shoulders. No doubt there
are many male snobs but, as a rule,
men are not inclined to be so particular
as to whom they, associate with as are
women, and it is highly probable that
if they were not exposed to female in
Auences they might be led to act so that
the lines of demarcation which separate
the people of this country might become
less broadly defined and In many cases be
entirely obliterated. As it is, there are
thousands of men who have hundreds of
acquaintances whom they cannot
whom, indeed, they dare not-admit to
their family circles, and these acquaint-
ances not uufrequently ripen into warm
friends. The people whom man meets
at the various places which he visits
during his walks abroad please him and
he can freely mingle with them without
his sense of self-respect being, In any
way, hrrt, for they are equal to him in
point Of ability and their natures are as
pure and elevated as his own. But he
knows that If he were to introduce them
to his feminine connections things
would be said which would please
neither them nor him, 80 he keeps his
knowledge of them, SO to speak, to him
self and gets his pleasures out of them
in q stealthy manner. Perhaps be is
wise to cot in this fashion but it may
still be thought that it would be better if
he pursued an independent course and
elected his friends on the score of their
intrinsic merits rather than on that of
their meretrieious surroundings. It
must hot be forgotten, however, that
he would then, in manly instances. be
subjected to a fiever-endihg course of
"Dagging." and 1t may be- remarked
that as the constant dropping of water
will wear away stone so will a nagging
woman in the end get pretty much what
she wants.
It may be asked how it comes about
that women are more snobbish than
men. Probably this is because they
have less real work to do, and 80 have
more time to think about their neigh
bors and their surroundings than have
men because they have little actual
contact with the world !; and because
they have, from their earliest days, the
principles of snobbishness carefully in
stilled into them. The course of edu-
cation to which school girls are sub
jected, is, of itself, calculated to make
them snobs. Certainly, it would be
we'll if means were taken to render
women less snobbbish than they are,
for bad as male snob is, female snob
is infinitely worse. For one thing, she
is more spiteful. It is the wife of
Grandee, and not Grandee himself, who
has such magnificent contempt for
people engaged in retail trade that she
and dismAy il it TRANSFERRED that a
daughter Of the house of Grandee was
being educated alongside the daughter
of Habefdasher, who, though he could
buy 0nudeeuppnce q twice, has been
unfortunate enough to make his money
by selling tape by the yard and buttons
by the dozen, while Grandee has dealt
in them in the bulk. As for Grandee,
If he had only himself to please. he
would as soon his daughter were edu-
Gated with little Miss Haberdasher as
with the child of Swindle, the mer-
chant, who has failed once or twice, and
very neatly diddled the chief bulk of
his creditors /; and he only takes action
in order that he may have peace and
quietneas at his own Preside. Indeed,
if he were left to his own devices, his
Gothic barbarity would carry him still
further then We have indicated. He
would hob-nob with Haberdasher him
self, and he would not be at all annoyed
if it came to his ears that his wife had
been having q friendly gossip with Mrs.
Haberdasher. But his good lady has
too much sense to fall into such an in
discretion as this, and she makes it her
away with him. Then, again, it il she,
not he, who carefully weighs up all the
qualifications and possessions of those
persons who are introduced into the
house of Grandee. It is she who goes
in for making people know their places.
It is she who can meet q so-called in
ferior in the street, and gaze at him as
if he were o piece of inanimate sculp- |
ture. It is she who can keep would-be |
upstairs down. It is she who, can for
sake old friends because they have "be- |
come SO dreadfully low. you know"
that it really would not do to associate |
with them. It is she who can quietly |
drop her poor relations because it does |
not suit her purpose to retain hold of |
them, even though by so doing, she |
might succeed in helping them up to |
her own level-she is so afraid of being |
down to theirs. It is she who |
seems to imagine that those who are
paid to serve her are of q race apart |
from herself, in the same, though a
lesser degree, than are dogs, horses,
and other animals. It is she who haunts |
her riches and power in the face of the
world. And, finally, it is she who sees