Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1880-06-12

decOratl0n OF q new society. Inc
American test of casual stranger who
very likely is going his way the next
moment, is still, for example. not his
civility, but his sincerity. II his talk
has genuine ring and his behavior a
genuine air about it. their acceptability
is assured. Our code in this respect Is
still that of the mining camp, though OF
diluted intensity, of course; we some.
how feel the same necessity Of examin-
ing credentials in New York drawing.
room that is felt in Nevada; whether oil
no man is a humbug is question the
better sort of people are irresistibly i'm
PEELED to ask themselves upon meeting
him for the first time. How the correct
answer can in the least matter TO any
one; or, in other words. what business il
can be of anybody's. in any but a print
tive community with no social polio,
and dependent upon volunteer vigilance
for its security, it occurs to no one t.
ask Ordinary acquaintance are look
ed upon rs candidates for close friend.
ship; there is usually, of course, no in
tention or inclination TO bring about 5
more intimate relation, but it may b6
said that in the general person mus
prove his worthiness TO be FRIEND
before he can become acceptable as al
acquaintance. The artificial institution
of a neutral ground upon which people
meet impersonally and where what i,
said and done is measured by an Objecr
i've standard of its own, is wholly
foreign if not repugnant to American
notions of what mannert should be
Doubtless it is a satisfaction to reflect
that this attitude could not be un.
affectedly assumed by any society thai
did not set a high value upon morals
and possibly there is natural and in
eyitable connection between an elaborate
development of manners and the vices
of a polished society. At the same
time it involves at least two results
which have their disadvantages. One
is a concentration upon the significance
rather than the form of everything
which attends social intercourse, and
the other paradoxical tendency TO the
very social hypocrisy which is popularity
supposed to be the concomitant solely
ofthe veneer of conventions. The first eX-
plains the prodigious amount of ''horse.
play which through inherited from an
Angio-Saxon ancestry, has here been
carried to a development and even re-
finement elswhere quite unknown.
With no other people, probably. is
rudeness SO purely relative thing; in
taking no offense where none is meant.
and conveying none in spite of every
indication to the contrary, Americans
display an unerring skillfulness which
not only makes brusgueness perfectly
innocuous, but often seems 10 imply
entire superiority of the grammar OF
courtesy. If whatever inherent charm
there may be in fine phrases is thereby
sacrificed, there is recompense in the
implicit confidence reposed in the en-
tente presupposed, which is not unlike
that of large family-itself proverbi.
ally mot a civil-spoken thing" The
social hypocrisy alluded to is not diff
cult of explanation. The feeling that
character rather than manners is in
question in social intercourse is enter
tanned just consciously enough to make
this an intensely personal affair-a re-
suit powerfully contributed TO by the
extreme introspectiveness that distin-
cuisines Americans. If it is question
OF the personal impression one is pro-
ducing, il is not human nature to
neglect making as good showing as
possible. One can understand from
this the inquiry once made by an OBJ
serving and candid Frenchman: ..Why
is it that Americans talk so much for
etfect?" The inquirer had no more ex-
perience of the moral tournaments so
customary with US than his surprised
auditor had of the possibilities Of i'm
personal conversation in which the true
IMAM of the world" so sure of his
own position, is such an adept.-N T.