Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-17
MANHATTANISMS.
NEW YEARS CALLS GOING OUT OF
FASHION IN GOTHAM
Notables Whom Egotism has Driven HAD
A Famous Lecturer Turned cynic
California Cutlery.

New York, January 9, 1850.
The lst of January, just passed, corrob-
crates what has been indicated for some
years-that the custom of calling, in vogue
here almost since the first Dutch settle
ment-is declining in this city. There
were, as you may suppose, tens OF thou
sands of callers well dressed men in
various grades of life were going on foot
and on wheels from noon until midnight ;
Fifth avenue was SO lined with carriages
that it seemed as if the whole of the fash
ionable thoroughfare were having recep-
ton; the residence portion of the town
was all movement, was seething with hu-
manity.
NEW YEAR 5 CALLING.
1t could hardly be otherwise IN a city
counting its proper and surrounding popu-
lation at not far from 1000, 200. But
there was marked faling-of numerically
from last year, and there has been a fall
ing-of for the last four or five years.
Hitherto this has been ascrbed to the pre-
vailing dullness of trade and the mental
dependency resulting therefrom But
this year no such cause can be as
signed for business has been improving
ever since the resumption of specie pay
ments, and January l, 1880, was full Of
agreeable memories and radiant anticipa-
lions of prosperity. Consequently the
calls ON that day should have largely in
creased. The sober fact is, however, that
they diminished, and it is entirely proba-
bic that they will continue to diminish.
Indeed, it may be safely assumed that
New Years calls are steadily going out of
fashion here, and for divers reasons. One
of these is that the city is too big, that
distances are so great that it is very diff
cult for men to visit any number of their
female acquaintance, especially when they
are distributed, as they commonly are, over
five or six miles of space. II they visit
few only the remainder of their acquaint-
ances feel neglected, and, privately at
many men not to visit at all. Callers are
by no means sure that their friends Will
receive, and it is not encouraging to go to
three or four houses in succession to lind
card baskets at the door, especially when
they may have had the trouble of going
out of their way to visit those particular
places. Men are unable to determine
whether their friends intend to receive or
not, because some of these send out cards
before January lst, and Others do not.
Failing to call on those that have not sent
cards, the non-senders who do receive are
hurt by the omission, and so unpleasant
ness is occasioned where there is no intent
to occasion unpleasantness. It is now
proper for men to send their cards on New
Years instead of calling, and it is so much
easier to do the former than the latter that
it is not strange that the sending of cards
steadily gains upon the calling.
Within q year or two the hours for call
ing have been fixed by many women be-
tween 8 and 10 P. NJ, and it is impossible
for men having many acquaintance to
visit all of them in seven hours, however.
brief the visits may be. 1t is nearly dark
at this season at 5 o'clock, and as most
private dwellings have the number on that
part of the front door which stands open,
it is necessary IN the evening to grope ones
way up the steps and discover the number,
which is
NO SMALL BOTHER,
Especially as the houses here are, as rule,
so very much alike as to be hard to dis
tinguish. In addition to all these reasons,
calling has in the past been so overdone,
has grown to be so miscellaneous, that
there is natural reaction from it, and not
to receive is now more signalized than to
receive. Finally, the condition Of the
streets is usually such on the first OF Janu-
airy that any one might well be deferred
from calling Whether a man drive or
walk, he cannot readily escape soil, for the
footway not less than the roadway is very
likely to be covered with mud or slush.
Under these dispiriting conditions it is
probable enough that New Years calls will
diminish henceforth. Why should
they not? As the original purpose was
not to visit ones intimate friends, but to
keep up social relations interrupted by
business or other distractions, with per-
sons found to be pleasant January lst
may ere long settle down to that. 1t seems
futile to dash in upon ones real friends
and dash out again on that day, with half
a dozen nice phrases or idle compliments,
when one is in the habit on other days of
paying informal, cordial, extended visits.
New Years must be eventually left, it
would seem, to the resumption of old in
timacies nearly discontinued by opposing
or of agreeable acquaint-
ances which might otherwise appear to
have been relinquished.
THE ECCENTRIC COUNT JOHANNES.
The death of Count Johannes, as he
called himself, removes one of the greatest
butts and laughing-stocks Of the town. For
near fourteen years he has been notorious
here. Every newspaper paragraphist has
been in the habit of practicing his wit on
the Count, when he had 10 other object.
He has been unsparingly and over
ridiculed in private and public,
and many people having no knowledge OF
him have been led to believe him fool.
He was far from it. Although something
of a mountebank of the unconscious sort,
he really had considerable intellect, and no
little scholarship. He was in his youth
quite clever actor but as he got on in
years, his powers naturally failed, and his
vanity and egotism, unfortunately for him,
steadily increased. He was persuaded
that he was a genius, and the community
in general felt convinced that he was an
ass. Between the opinion entertained of
himself and the opinion entertained of
himy there was of necessity an irreconcil-
able conflict. He believed most profound
" that he was not appreciated and his
belief strengthened and intensified until he
became virtually monomaniac on the
subject. The more he was laughed at,
the more faith he had in his greatness.
Egotism, in a word, overturned his judg-
ment, never very firm, and converted him
into an object OF contempt and ridicule.
Having no sense of humor, he could not
comprehend humor in others. When peo-
pie tlouted and jeered at him, he was con-
WINGED that they envied him. He never
entertained the slightest doubt of his ex-
traordinary capabilities he died with the
self-assurance that his was a gigantic mind.
The face and figure of the Count were
known to most New Workers. His black,
curly wig his pale, intense face his fan
tastic, though seedy, attire; his melo-dra-
matte air and manner, rendered him con-
spicuous in the region of the City Hall,
which he greatly frequented, and where, if
any one should accost him, he would talk
of himself unfortunately. He will be
missed in that quarter, and he will be
missed by the journalistic scribes who
have for years made him target for their
tests. Men of the Counts type are grow
ing scarce here.
OTHER FANTASIES.
George Francis Train, who has also been
disordered by extreme egotism, has, as he
says, withdrawn from public life. He no