The Portland daily press., 1879-10-25
THE PRESS.
London Society,"
A Romance Of the Prince OF
Wales's Garden-Party.

a tendency to consider itself the universe.
The inhabitants, worthy people most OF
them, were so much in the habit of thinking
their own concerns and the concerns OF their
neighbors affairs of paramount Importance,
that, if a great European war had proheli
out they would not have considered IL OF
one half SO much importance as the burning
of Farmer Beanstalk's ricks, or the defalea-
tons of the local tax gatherer The death
of the parish clerk produced amore profound
impression amongst all ranks and classes
than the death of the Emperor Napoleon;
and the Crimean war was only thought
worthy Of q place in the annals Of Southbay
because one Of the Squire's sons happened
to DC killed before 5ebastopol
There is u marble in the church about
II, said Southbay; and so summed up the
campaign. ,
Never was there So self-contained little
town. Ia the season visitors came and went,
took lodgings, paid sufficient sums OF money
TO landladies and tradespeople; but South
BAY took no notice Of them beyond putting
down every thing they required, IN the way
OF eating, drinking, and clothing, at about
double It's worth in their bills.
s5outhbay did nothing for The amusement
Of its guests. II had no bands, no regatt"a,
no hoBer-shows, no promenades; 1t wouid
not have even q barrel-organ, or 4 lnonkey
clad in Highland costume, appear III It's
streets.
To visitors Southbay Waa attstere, not to
say repeliant. Their money was acceptable,
but themseIYes-no. SoUthbay did moi IKE
its sands TO be dug over by strange children;
il orudgad The Shells that infant hands bore
lrijlmphantly inland. 1t had a general idea
that there must be something wrong about
the homes Of persons who left them each
year to the mercy of charwomen and ser
wants: and it viewed with distinct distayor
The dresses of those ladies who thought to
pleasure Southbay and themselves by dom
ming ali their bravery, and appearing III
church arrayed in silk attire, made in the
very latest fashion. The wars of politicians,
the intrigues of statesmen, the trlumphs
achieved by art, the discoveries made by eX-
piorers,-al these things, which Southbay
read about in its local papers, were merely
regarded as parts of play enacted for the
pleasure of the little town.
If business or eXpediency took any OF the
Southbaians up to, London, themselves and
all their neighbors imagined London must be
excited by the circumstance. That London
was able to get on without people from
Southbay the inhabitants understood, after
fashion, just as they understood Jura and
the Rhigi still remained standing, even
though no tourist from amongst them
CHANGED to be in Switzerland; but they felt
the mountains during such absence must be
lonely; and in like manner they had con-
viction-none the less certain because silent
that without visitors from Southbay Lon
don must seem empty. The sense OF person
al importance was upon every one in South
bay; less because of that Importance OF lndl-
viduality, which characteriZes even gutter
child but because he or she belonged to
Southbay.
1t was something to have been born there,
and to have had many ancestors born there
likewise. for many previous generations; but
it was also something to be taken up by
Southbay, fguratively given the freedom of
that historical town, admitted to the ranks
of fellowship, and treated almost upon an
equality with those who had ''lived there all
their lives"
This was work of time. Not rashly did
Southbay vouchsafe other than a cold well
come to those who bought properties or took
long leases of houses i'll its midst. Southbay
said, and said rightly, that it knew nothing
about strangers; and so it was tacitly under
stood that strangers were there to be treated
as the English law practically treats those ii
is supposed to consider innocent-as most
pestilent criminals
When a new man came TO the pretty wa
tering-place, there was no story concerning
him that might not have hoped to gain cred
ence.
If Southbay had heard he was bigamist,
a forger, swindler, Southbay would have
said, Just whas I always thought about
him."
AS for BIRTH no man could be well born
who had not Southbay blood in his veins.
Over tea and supper-tables genealogies were
recited that would have astonished Sir Ber-
nard Burke. Good old family-trees growing
in other pastures were pronounced mush-
rooms. There was always some ancient
dame, or shaky old gentleman, who knew
stories to the disparagement Of Lord A. S
grandfather, or the Warehouses of BIS
mamma.
Voices were dropped and heads shaken,
and such utterances as, 81 could tell tale
about that family" or, There Were good
reasons why the last earl did not marry,
only the less said concerning such matters
the better; though il was stated OF the best
authority that the scandal concerning Lady
- andso forth.--al of which remark S
We're as so much wine TO the inhabitants Of
Soufhbay, making glad their hearts within
them, and showing more conclusiVely than
the parson ever did. how dreadfully wicked
the world was-that world from which, each
Sunday audibly, and on most weekdays in
its heart, Southbay prayed to be delivered.
For the world to Southbay seemed a very
tangible thing. 1t meant all creation out
side its own little circle-London, st. Peters
burg New York. and many other places
mentioned in the geography book.
The feeling which Induced the Shetland
minister to pray for his own country, and
the adjacent islands Of Great Britain and
Ireland, was rampant at S0uthbay. 1t was
an ignorant little place--a hundred, two
hundred, three hundred years behind the
rest of the world in mental civilization; just
tolcrating new cmates, treating doctors who
took care of a practice as if they belonged to
far-awav order Of creation; taking unkind-
" to wives introduced from distance, and
refusing altogether to believe in husbands
from remote counties-sav Middlesex. or
Surrey, or Hertfordshire, or any other shire
beyond the pale of that which boosted the
fee-simple Of Southbay.
For these and many other reasons, South
bay had failed to greet with effuson the new
agent who came to rule over the great Forrest
estates. For some motive unintelligible to
outsiders, local wisdom decided that Mr.. AL
byn, the son of the late agent ought to have
stepped into his fathers shoes. That Mr..
Albyn disiked country life, and was making
far greater success in London as a barris-
ter than he could ever have hoped to do at
Southbay, even as Mr.. Forests representa-