Morning journal and courier., 1883-01-25
A Mysterious Charm of Manner.
The Gift Which is Sometimes Better fol the POssessor Than Great Fortunes.
 From tbe Iondon World


 the Possessor Than Great Fortunes
 From the London world]
 Just as there are certain indelibIe traits in the British national character, so there are hundreds of English families whose members are mutually connected not more by ties of kindred than by the common possession of some peculiarity of physiognomy or deport. ment. Extreme urbanity is the tradition of one house a certain almost brutal brusque is the patrimony of another. Nobody belong ing to the ancient race of Carabas was ever known to be able to eat cold tongue with comfort. The rival house in the next country 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 Waterloo, with the somewhat important exception that he has none of his sire's development of jaw. Nor are demeanor and little tricks of manner handed down from father to son and from one generation to another in a less degree. There is one noble family in England which accompanies hereditary cast of the left eye with singularly aecentuated effeminacy of bearing A second might be named, each son and daughter of which are troubled by chronic brevity of breath. There is third whose distinguishing peculiarity is the attri- bute which the world calls such 8 charm of manner" This peculiarity 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 &C., complished and interesting nobleman-tow- ards whom the English public of the present day is beginning to entertain something of the same kind of sentiment as was expert enced by the Athenians in the case of Aris tides-in urbanity and all courtly and knightly virtues.
 He was anything but an apostle, but 1t 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 mys- terious charm of manner has never been wanting to any son or daughter of the race. It has adhered to parents and children with tenacity worthy of the gout. It has never found place in any of MT. Galton's treatises on heredity; but it no more departs 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, every member of a third is cricketer, and every member of fourth rides peculiar and diff ferent hobby horse of his own or her own. The charm of manner is just as tangible an attribute as any other. Ut IS jewel above price; but it's virtues are not without certain accompanying perils which are peculiarly their own.
 It is said of the present Lord Napier and Ettrick that when, at the height of his diplo matic popularity, he was asked who was the pIeasantest man in Europe, he naively re- piled, 'tI am'' The consciousness of such @ reputation is a tremendous burden; and It 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 Ca charm of man. ner' deseends 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, sisters, cousins and aunts. Occasionally, the youthful Alcibiades 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 with his confounded simpering ways, and why he always speaks as if his mouth was full of plums But when the strictly academic stage is reached, all this is different, and the under. graduate exhibits, in unrestrained ex- uberance, that power of attraction which is the admiration of all men and the secret of few.