The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1883-02-07
A MYSTERIOUS CHARM OF MAN
HER.
The Gift Which Is Sometimes Better
for the Possessor than Great
Fortunes.
Edmond Yates in london World

Edmond Yates in London World.
Just as there are certain indelible
traits in the British national character,
so there are hundreds of English fam
lilies whose members are mutually con-
nected not more by ties of kindred than
by the common possession of some pc
culiarity Of physiOgnomy or department.
Extreme urbanity is the tradition of one
house; a certain almost brutal brusque-
ness is the patrimOny of another. No
body belonging TO the ancient race Of
Carabas was ever known to be able TO
eat cold tongue with comfort. The ri
val house in the next county is equally
liable to be nauseated by the taste of
honey. The nose and upper lip of the
Cavendishes have been famous ever since
the days of Bess of Hardwick The
present Duke of Wellington is an almost
exact resemblance of the hero of Water
loo, with the somewhat important excep-
ton that he has none Of his sire's deyel-
opment of jaw. Nor are demeanor and
little tricks of manner handed down
from father to son and one generation to
another in a less degree. There is one
noble family in England which accom-
panies an hereditary cast of the left eve
with singularly accentuatcd efemin-
acy OF bearing A second might be
named each son and daughter of which
are troubled by chronic breyity of breath.
There is third whose Distinguishing
popularity is the attribute which the
world calls "such charm of manner.
This popularity of grace has been in the
family for generations. An ancestor of
the present head of the house was a CO.
temporary of Falkland and eclipsed
that accomplished and interesting noble
man-toward whom the English public
of the present day is beginning to enter
tain something of the same kind of senti.
ment as was experienced by the Athen-
ians in the case of Aristides-in urban
ity and all courtly and knightly yir-
tues.
He was anything but an Apostle, but
it was said of him that given half an
hours start, he could cut out any man
in England in the affections of woman.
Since then this mysterious charm of
manner has never been wanting to any
son or daughter Of the race. 1t has adj
hered to parents and children with to-
nacity worthy of the govt. 1t has never
found a place in any of Mr.. Cations
treatises on heredity; but it no more de-
parts out of the household than have
hitherto done the family Jewels or the
silver spoons and forks. The scions of
one ancient stock are born to good looks,
OF another to good luck, and every mem
Der Of fourth rides peculiar and diff
feren hobby horse of his own or her
own. The charm of manner is Just as
tangible an attribute as any other. 1t
is a jewel above price; but its virtues
are not without certain accompanying
perils which are peculiarly their own.
1t is said OF the present Lord Napier
and Ettrick that when, at the height of
his diplomatic popularity, he was asked
who was the pleasantest man in Europe,
he naively replied, 81 am" The con
seriousness of such reputation is ire
mendous burden; and II is not given to
every one to bear it with the grace and
ease of our sometime Ambassador at st.
Petersburg and Berlin. The individual
to whom the heritage of "a charm of
manner" descends, learns from earliest
years, not that it is his or her duty to
please, but that it is his or her destiny to
please. On every side the set phrase is
applied by parents, brothers, uncles, sis
tiers, cousins and aunts. Occasionally
the youthful Aleibiades finds that he is
not appreciated at his true worth. When
he is at school rude youths ask him
what he is grinning at, what he means
by his COMPOUNDED simpering ways, and
why he always speaks as if his mouth
was JUL of plums? But when the strict
ly academic stage is reached, all this is
different, and the undergraduate exhib-
its in unrestrained exuberance, that
power Of attraction which is the admit
ration of all men and tho secret of few.