Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-10-09
BEAUx Avn CmaPERoNs.


to some Innovations i'm the social
usages of Washington city. and
illustrates the Inconvenience and
even ludierous effect of Introducing
half understood foreign customs,
while others of native origin are
retained which are altogether in
compatible with them.
AS the letter of II. r. r. alIudes
to topics which were some time ago
discussed at length in this paper, we
reprint it entire, and then point out
the folly of half-adopting usages
without understanding the princi-
pies on which they are based:
In Saturdays Evening Post, under the
head 'sC0ncerning Women" find the fol-
lowing very interesting Information
.Among the Washington young women
who move in the extremely select circle OF
the army and navy it is considered highly
improper TO attend a concert or theater, even
with ones JIc3lce. without the chaperonage
of mamma or a maiden amt. A ride alone,
or even a call, without the presence of q
third person, Is not to be spoken OF, and
young men find their maidens well watched
and guarded. But one evening a mother
was TOO ill to go TO the play, and a young
woman for once consented to go alone with
tie man to whom she was engaged. speak
ing of it afterwaFd she said L suffered ag-
ony all the time for fear we should meet
somebody knew, and never felt so COM
mon in all my life"
have no doubt that this paragraph had a
certain basis of fact. Nothing is incredible
in fashionable intelligence, and it is possible
that there are young women here OF the de-
scriptiOn noticed in the paragraph. Such
persons make themselves ridiculous, OF
course, but then the same persons are con-
stantly making themselves ridiculous in
some way or Ot:4er, and the affrctaJion men
toned, perhaps, is no more singular or
absurd than many others of their VagarieS.
can imagine three motives which might
be urged in support of such a regulation in
what is designated in the paragraph "the
extremely select circle of the army and ma
wy" Ftrst--The mamma or maiden aunt
might be excused for introducing the regu-
iation since it involves free ticket for her
self to all rides, concerts and theatrical per-
formanees. The second reason is that in
this Extremely select circle" 1t may be con-
sidered by the persons responsible for the
morality of society that the young women
are less prudent or their male friends are
less respectful than the corresponding
classes among those whom the young
woman in the anecdOte you give deSignates
as common" people. A third reason may
be that this extremely select circle of the
army and navy may think 1t desirable to
copy as far as possible the social laws of
countries which have not yet reached that
scale of civilization which renders militia
ry ariStOcracy an anachroniSm and nuiS-
ance, and so wish to model their code of
decorum on that Of Spain or Turkey. l sus-
pect, however, that the young woman who
moves in this extremely select circle would
tlemen to concerts and theatres and take
the risk and suffer the agony which the
young woman of the anecdote was self-sac-
rificing enough to undergo with the man to
whom she had plighted her faith. 1t was a
noble instance OF woman's devotion, was 1t
not?
There is class here in Washington, and
they may be found more or less scattered
over the country, who are known as army
and navy people. They make their money
by killing other people. They get rather
higher wages than ordinary hangmen, prob
ably because they take more lives than the
hangman. Their business is homicide.
fortunately, more or less Importance in hu-
man history since the days of Amraphel,
king of Shinar, when that doughty warrior,
with three other martial kings, made war
with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah ana
their allies in the Valley of Siddim. But,
thanks to the new social forces of our mod
ern, true civilization, the warrior is losing
his glory, and will soon lose his bloody bus
mess.
In our social fabric there is, properly
speaking, no such thing as society" and
the attempts of persons to make and main
tain social grades, which are incidental only
in countries governed by ariStocratic insti-
buttons, are inevitably comic failures But
of all these attempts the most ridiculous is
the claim, set up by some army and navy
people, that they constitute true aristocra-
cy, and have, by reason of the profession of
their male relatives, a patent to an informal
nobility, which gives them the right to con-
cle."
think see myself in the west end of the
capital requesting the pleasure of the society
of one of those select young women at some
public entertainment. She says: "If be-
longed to the common people; ii my father
or brother simply made laws for the COM
munity or superintendent the commercial
intercourse of nations or directed the finan-
ctal exchanges of the world, should be
most happy tie accompany you; but seeing
that member of my family has dedicated
himself to the destruction of mankind, and
kills such people as those in power happen
to think should be slain. must request you,
as a safeguard against improperly on your
part and indiscretion on mine, to buy an
other ticket for my old maiden aunt.
H. r. Z.
Washington, D. c., Sept. 20, 1880.
In the first place we sympathize
very warmly with H. E. R. The
young man is evidently very much
in love, and, as he has learned all
his life, considers it at once his duty
and his privilege, to take his lady
love to theatres, parties, concerts,
etc., drawing heavily upon his
rather limited resources to defray
expenses in the way of tickets,
hacks, etc., not to mention his own
toilet. No wonder then at his dis
may when his indnaOrdt0 doubles
teams on him by bringing with her
a portly dowager or bony maiden
aunt as chaperon, with the expec-
tatiOn that the double expenses of
an additional ticket, additional car
riage-room and and an additional
bouquet shall all be shouldered by
the unhappy III. r. E." who thus
finds his disbursements doubled,
while his enjoyment is certainly not
increased. Naturally he objects
loudly to the introduction of foreign
usages into American society.
But for his comfort we will tell
him that the usage is not European,
but only a laundering imitation of
something which somebody has
seen or read of as European, and
misunderstood. If he were in Eu-
rope, so far from having the aunt or
rung in upon him, he
would not be allowed to take the
young lady under his charge at all.
She would go with her family or
her chaperon, the expenses being
paid by the head of the family, and
"H. II. E." would not be concerned
in the transaction at all until he met
her at the opera-house or ballroom,
when, if very intimate, he might
be admitted into the family box or
permitted to dance the first quad
rifle with her, and then ut last he
might present the bouquet, the pur-
chase of which and his own ticket
would be his only share of the eX-
pense.
Without giving an opinion as to
the transplanting of this usage into
the American social system, we will |
say that at an rate it must be adopt
ed ia toto or not all. The discOrd- !
ant mixture of the two usages de-
scribed by Oh. r. E." is irrational
and absurd. We will, however,
mention as an advantage of the
EurODpan custom That il renders /