The Portland daily press., 1876-12-07
TFIom the Pail Mall Gazette !
American Society.
Hts Glasses and Preferences as Explained
10 Engiishmen.

At none of the American watering-places are
there those distinctions of classes according to
the season of the year which are characteristic
of Brighton and Scarborough IN England.
There is only one season at any of them, and
all kinds of visitors go at the same time. 1t
would puzzle an English visitor. indeed, to see
any lines of demarkation between the social
''classes'' as they gather at these resorts No
one can do so except skilled American In
country like this, where social classes have
scarcely any basis except personal taste-where
two or more classes may claim precedence, with
no one to decide between them and with no
recognized standard on which to found a deci-
sion-where no settled traditions exist, and
there are no letters-patent from the government
where the term "good society means moth
ing in particular and everything in general-it
requires very learned eye to mark the distinc-
tions which really do exist. An English lady
recently insisted, in conversation with myself,
that class distinctions were very decided in
American society. She was right. But it is
nevertheless true that neither she nor any other
stranger has the slightest tangible means of
learning what the distinctions are or where
they begin and end. When our comic writer,
Nasby, wrote a letter to show the advantages
of the Alaskan climate, during our negotiations
With RuSSla, ne remarked GndI tJne lSObu6rmdl
line went ''cork-screwing" up among the paral-
lels of latitude, and that strawberries fiourished
all the year round on one side of it and icebergs
on the other. The cork-screw may be taken as
fair illustration OF the boundaries which mark
the various classes of American society. III
this is true even when society is at home, in
our cities, the truth is more noticeable when all
the elements of our society mingie together at
summer resort. Except so far as be depends
on his letters of introduction, an English gen.
Al r,sitt am n ham do hatf
than be guided by his personal taste in his judg
ment of the people he meets. If he is himself
man of refinement, he may be tolerably cer-
tain, following this rule, that the people he
likes best and becomes best acquainted with
belong to "good society in this country. If he
is not himself refined, he will select very diff
f.rent kind of people, though he will feel quite
as we'll satisfied in the end that he has teen
circulating among the best classes here. Those
he meets, in fact, will constantly assure him to
| that effect. 1t IS, or should be, particular
| charm of American society that every foreign
| er, whomsocver he meets, feels confident that
| he has been in its highest circles.
A fact which is not generally known in Eng
| land in connection with American society is
| this: Whatever influence wealth, new or old,
| may have, culture is something which uniform
| ly ommanGs respect and good position in all
| circles. 1t maybe entirely overshadowed by
| the claims of wealth, through sheer force of
superior numbers, in some places and among
some classes; but it is everywhere recognized
/ as sufficient passport in itself to the highest
social circle. This is quite as true of social
| life in far-western city, where not one MEM
| ber of society in hundred lays claim to a lib
l eral education, as it is the most exclusive Cir
| cles of Boston, where calture claims an abso-
| lutte monopoy-where it seems only to tolerate
| wealth. and TO look with a complacenty pat
| ronizing air upon "birth." On the other hand
there is no circle of American society in which
mapy of its members do not owe their position
| to the possession of wealth. This must always
he true of any society which is untrammeed
| by long existing aristocratic traditions The
utmost excusiveness to be found in Boston or
Philadelphia or among the "knickerbocker'
families in New York, yields to the power OF
wealth where it is accompanied by Ia fair
amount of good taste on the part of Its possess.
ors. Nor is it necessary that culture or any
high degree of good taste should be possessed by
the father and mother of family. American
society, however exclusive, is ever ready to as
sume that man of wealth has struggled up
ward from youth of scant advantages, and il
is amply satisfied if he gives his children the
opportunities of culture which he himself may
have lacked. Men like this, in truth are among
the strongest support of any American sGcia
| circle, whatever or whoever its other members
members may be. A few practical hint
then, to an English gentleman coming Il
| America might be given as follows: Suppos
ing him to be extending his acquaintance
beyond the immediate limits of his personal let