The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-07-28
Manners q Century Ago.

The world has moved. The nine
teenth century is more decorous than
the eighteenth was, and enjoys more of
the comforts of life. Take, as an illus
tration of progress, Scottish society. A
hundred years ago, it was as picturesque
in it's manners, and as rude also, as the
wild scenery of the Highlands. Strange
contrasts met the eye of the foreign
visitor. He saw the laird living in an
old house with massive walls of red
sandstone or gray granite. A square
castellated tower showed that it was
built in unsettled times, when an on
slaught of enemies had to be resisted.
The farm-buildings, with their heaps
and pools of manure, were within a
stone throw of the laird's door. The
cottages of his tenants were novels,
with upholstered walls, ragged thatch-
roofs and straw-bound chimneys. The
laird was usually deep-drinker and an
over-much feeder. His "leddy" found
employment in driving her maids from
pillar to post. She had no accomplish
ments, and her education was of the
plainest sort. Neither she nor her
daughters cared to read, and there were
not many books, then, to interest the
feminine mind. But the laird and his
wife were aristocratic and knew the
prestige of blue-blood. On the laird's
death, his unmarried daughters dubbed
their little dowrics and went to reside
in some town. They were poor, but
the towns people at once acknowledged
their right to move at the head of So
ciety. In Edinburgh. fine ladies in
habited flats on a fifth or sixth story.
When they went out to a party the con-
dition of the common stairs obliged
them to hold high their robes of bro
cade. A couple of porters, called
"caddies," carried them in sedan-chairs
at a swing trot while another went be-
fore with flaming torch to show the way
through the filthy and ill-paved alleys.
In the smaller towns, lady going to
party was preceded by lass bearing a
bandbox, and lantern also, if it were
winter, when darkness came early and
stayed late. In the retiring-room, the
lady unpacked the bandbox and rear
ranged herself. She appeared before
the company in dress which had been
handed down as an heirloom from
generation to generation. Everybody
was familiar with all the dresses.
whose antique fashion was set off by
frills, and falls and fuckers in old fami-
ly lace. Though they dressed at each
other. there were few surpris g, and,
therefore, fewer heart burnings than
now. Cards entertained them, and the
play was enlivened by the usual wran-
gle, in which their blue blood did not
prevent them from forgetting their
manners. During the p ay they told
b is of news, with which their maids
and their in eriors, anxious to pay them
court, had crammed them. No mod
ern reporter was better informed of
what was going on than these aristo-
cratic danes. And no stor, writer
was more able than they to construct
sensational scandal out of the slightest
materials. If there was dancing, it was
carried out in courtly style, with an
elaborate profusion Of bows and formal
courtesies. The rules of etiquette and
precedence were vigorously observed.
But neither courtesy nor etiquette for
babe the gentlemen from coming into
the dance full of wine, or from olering
the broadcast of compliments to their
fair partners. Even the enthusiastic
eulogist of the olden time must admit
that modern manners and ways, it less
picturesque, are an Improvement on
those of hundred years ago.-fo"shs
COMPANION.