The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-01-12

road arIstocracy and theIzaIning mill
lIouaires, so Its present weakness IL
most clearly manifested In the broad
and general grade composed Of brokers,
bankers, professional and commercial
men. Here indeed one finds all the
talents, all the highest intelliGences,
the greater part of the culture, the SIN
corest appreciation of the aesthetic, the
Iaesk ReIlial comprehension of true hog
pItaliey. But the trouble IL that CALI
1ornia has always been q refuge for the
errtng, for the man that did not want
10 pay his debts, and the wife that pre-
fers her neIxkbor's husband TO her
own, and therefore In that plane OF the
social world which have now reach
ed there Is an immense amount OF dis
trust. Nobody really knows the exact
social position OF bis neighbo-s; no la
dy can honestly aVouch her implicit
reliance upon the representations OF
ether ladies' - to their status-it has
so often turned out that the As were
not legally married, Mrs. A having
failed 70 obtain divorce from her frat
husband In the States that the Bs
were notoriously black sheep When
they lived in Massachusetts, that the
ca had pecuniary troubles which were
complicated with matrimonial unhap-
piness, and so on to the end OF the al
phabeC-
The fact is, that until the railroad
WAS built that spanned the continent,
CALIFORNIA; was far more land OF ref
uge than . land of gold. The unhap-
by, tina unfortunate, the crippled In
reputation, the Incompatible In temper,
ali ned TO California rs . land border-
Ing on the "happy isles." where the
past was hlotted cut, aAd there was .
new deal for every body The result
of this seems TO have been charming
In some respects, and deplorable In
others. presume that nowhere In the
world can a society be found so rich In
people of strong originality, Of great
perSanaI charm and utter contempt
Tor conventlonalItles. The talents and
the propensItIes seldom go hand In
hand, however, and in Europe, where
that fact has been recognized, certain
latitude Is allowed toward the gifted
OIleb whose mission Il TO please, enter
tain and instruct the world. But In
the UnIted States no such plea In ex-
tenuatIOn Is entertained, and the poet
who wishes to stand we'll In the com
munIty must be an exemplary men,
her of society as well as q writer Of
thrilling Verses.0 He must possess
not emily the gifts of Apollo,
but mast have also the rec
oGAition and stamped approval OF the
Sunday schools. But in California
there was such an abundance OF gifted
people In society that they were able
10 oyertnrn the rigid notions of Amerl-
ca, and to substitute pleasing code Of
their own, In which every body was to
.lvsA AnalnAQa and fhA
ship of the tea-table was to be abol-
ished forever.
At first, when the numbers were few,
those who recognized the necessity OF
u higher code Wers so greatly in the
minority that they were compelled to
close their eyes very tightly as . gen.
eral thing. There were some very fla
grant cases, as when . lady changed
her husband somewhat too rapidly,
even for the lasts of California, and
these were made the scapegoats. Ex-
PEELED from society, they bore not only
the burden of theiI own iniqaities, but
Vicariously were made TO support the
sins Of the community. After such
little incidents, society In San Francis
co drew long breath and felt purged
and absolved, and with q considerable
balance OF virtue To It's credit. But as
the numbers Increased, so did the ne
cesslty for moro frequent social execu-
tions increase, until the time came
when the first families withdrew them
selves altogether from general society
and became exclusives. This however
lett the state Of things more deplorable
than ever, because so long as they ac-
cepted some and rejected others, they
did In fact exercise q sort Of censorship.
But now, a. the case stands at present,
the broad and general elements of the
social fabric In this city are Ia q chaOt-
ic condition. The Influence of the new
corners tends more and more toward
the state of things existing In the East,
where the church Is the nucleus around
which society gathers. Bat the infiu-
ence Of the old Californians Is directly
oppOeed to this, and as the ministers
are feeble in character and wanting In
magnetism, they have been unable to
second the efforts made by the most re-
cent additions to Californian society.
The proposition, then, may be laid
down that In the third grade of socie-
ty here there Is no cohesion whatever,
not even anything approaching 70 q
clique. There are Friendships, there
are intimacies, but there Is no general
society. Yet here, in this very grade,
are all the elements Tor q social system
as intellectual as Edinburgh, as bright
and vivacIous rs Paris, and with an Ia
diVidual charm peculiar to itself. It
contains 90 much of other countries (; It
Is consumed by so few prejudices it Is
narrowed ty so few conVentionalitIeS.
Here are English families, who pre-
serve the dlgnIiled FpIcureanism of
England. Here are Boston families,
who have their readings of Browning,
and their deliveries OF original poetry,
and their black coffee, and their indi-
xestibl0 cake. Here are families from
Virginia, who live as NIrginians used
to live thirty years ago, who are par
ticular to the last degree about their
hams, tenacious in their views about
the fattening and stnffing of turkeys,
and who import their own clarets.
Here are French families, living not as
they dolin Paris, but as they do In Sau-
muir and its suburb, the Pont FOu-
chard, or in Apgouleme and its sub
urb, lie IIoumeau. And there are al
so Spanish families, but they are de-
graded from their high estate, and I
tear their domestic lives are more full
Ot Mexican Ideas than Castilian or Cat
alenian. There are here such great
possibilities OF a grand, glorious, Intel
ligent society, that l should bitterly
ErieYe II It should break into little
church cliques. But this, in my opin-
ion, iL will never do. l believe that Il
will be possible TO weld it into one
harmonious whole, In which all the
different savoTs and piquancies shall
be preserved, and In which shall be 70.
tain ed that contempt tor form, and
that appreciation OF the aesthetic which
lt will derive from the naughty but
nice people who came here IN the early
days.
1t Is obvious that the only manneE
in which such welding can be accom-
plished 10 by strong leadership aud rig
id,censors. This, of course, is easieI
to write than To de; but fortunately Il
has been done In one instance, and
most successfully. Warren Leland, Of
the Palace Hotel, conceived the idea OF
giving monthly hops, and the general
society of which am writing jumped
at the thought. The guests Of the no
tel had the privilege Of inviting any
one they chose, and this kind and gen
erous permission was so dlshonorably
construed on the second occasion that
all the respectable ladies left the par
lors. Vet there Is not among the
boaFders Of the hotel one single indi-
SIduAl whose position Is In the least