Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-11-14
BETWEEN OURSELVES.

one Gay Lazy Cteyn0S carriage uTOVe up I'd
Mr.. Rawdon Orawley's door, and the footman
delivered in a couple of cards, on which were
engraved the names of the Marchioness of
Steyne and the Countess of Gaunt. If these
bits of pasteboard had been beautiful pictures,
| or had had hundred yards of Malines lace
rolled round them, worth twice the number
| of guineas, Becky could not have regarded
| them with more pleasure. You may be sure
they occupied conspicuous place in the china
! bowl on the drawing room table, where Becky
kept the cards of her visitors. Lord! Lord |
how poor Mrs. Washington Whites card and
Lndy Crackenbury's card, which our little
friend had been glad enough to get few
months back, and of which the silly little
creature was rather proud once-Lord! Lord |!
/ say, how soon. at the sight of these grand
court cards, did those poor little neglected
dueces sink down to the bottom of the pack.
| This topmost appraisal of visiting cards is
relatively as conspicuous in st. Paul as in
London. The sphere for display isn't so large
and impressive, and there are no such grand
titles with their symbols to figure ON the PASTE
board. But the spirit of valuation and toady-
ism is about the same and it is amusing or sal
utary just as your mood is.
| Says Mrs. Harris to me the other day: C'Mrs.
Harris" is good for pseudo
| nym, or for imaginary converse
| tions and pretensions, although it is too bad
| that the risibly suggestive name of Sairey
| Camps dear friend-unseen as Rip Van Win
kle's dog Snyder, yet as felicitous factor of
dramatic interest should in this locality
| be dashed with tragic favor
while conveying the same impression of IT,
| posture-or at any rate Of being mo SIGH a
person as Mrs. Harris"
Harris, then, is conjuring sort of name due
| to the RANT aud grotesque genius which gave
US Pickwick and the rest. Small blame to
| Augustus Pickwick of England for petition
| ing parliament to change his name since
Charles Dickens had made 1t monument of
absurdity as he alleged in his plea-)
Well, as Mrs. Harris was about to say: 81
| have lived in Blank street q good many years,
| and as you know belong to the Anti Despai r
Kirk. The utilitarian members have called
they are deputed and pledged to this sort of
wor K, but the aristocratic representatives who
figure in society have never put in an appear
an,e Ihave been always puzzled about it but
| ID never ranked as it does since I saw the
cards Of the BIS. and LIS. and SIS on the top of
a card receiver, eonspicuously
displayed by a woman wins has just
moved into the neighborhood and who hasn't
BALI my claim to that sort of recognition
even If / do say it, Husband and money?
| Yes, he has lots of it, aad perhaps that's the
clue to it-although we are not poor, and my
husbands professional status and income are
good"
Poor Mrs. Harris, twas no use to rehearse all
the things that have been said from time out
of mind, in just such circumstances. You
never could convince her that she wasn't the
victim Of some specially unjust discrimination
yea, indeed, conspiracy in the matter of her
high social privileges. No- could You make
her see that she, too, exercised the same capri
cious tyranny in her own way. in her own set
towards certain persons who would value her
recognition of their social claims.
1t is recorded of Mrs. Hicks-Lord
that she personally besought Lady
Waldgrave for an invitation to Strawberry
Hill, which being denied for the reason that
there was no place for her at table, she beg
ged TO be preferred, if any vacancy should oc-
cur, and became urgent to the point of annoy
ance. Surely here is an example worthy of
emulation by people who would venture-and
have something worth the while in Vanity Fair
whether it be grand dinner among the no
biIity of England-or a superannuated has
band we'll up in the millions.
OF course Mira. Harris would never dream of
seeing Mrs. Flaneur in person for one of her
oouat al ipvitotfoDu Ruf aftor all - mould ~
more direct, sincere and praiseworthy, than to
fret and Mcclure as the favored ones ride
and walk up to that charmed portal TO partici-
pate in some select" social event.
''Ail women are alike, says Ny Lord Steyne
to Mistress Becky Sharp Crawley. Everybody
is striving for what is not worth the having
You are bent upon becoming a fine lady.
You poster my poor old life out to get you in
TO the werld. You won't be able to hold your
own there. you silly little fool. You've got no
money, and you hate to compete with those
who have. You will go to Gaunt House. You
give an old fellow no rest until you get there.
You will be asked to dinner next week. And
care asz tenames. look out and hold your owni
How the women will bully youg'
So they did-so they will until that prophet
1c new LeatAu0er bits GOWN on the ruins OF
everything. With all possible Difference to
Mrs. Harris who fancies that she is individ-
ualIy snubbed for some mysterious cause
there is good reason for asserting that person.
ality has very little to do with aociety rs a
fashionable leagae. It is in the main
as cold blooded and taxable
"machins" as the predominant
politics of the country. 1t has
its leaders, its prefsrnents, its
superficial and substantial qualifications of ad-
mission. Its proceedings are arbitrary, and
are always vested in few persons whs do as
they please and make their crowd acsept and
follow then-be it in Paris or st. Paul.
There ia good comparison in psint in
Few York illustrated paper. A fine lady or
dered her footman to take dear Fiao" ont for
his health. The man is represented az stand
ing in abject despair before the little beast,
saying, But the dog won't follow me, na'am,"
to which his mistress calmly responded, ''Then
you must follow the dog, James,"
This ia about the dilenma Of society with it's
leaders and votaries-to lead and be led, no
matter what ridicule it may begst in tho minds
of the Liberals outside Of the drsss circle.
Society ia volatile too in its preferences. We