Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-11-14
SNODS, CABS, AND
The wide Distameti~ms shat aaDofate
These 0orss Of Esersons,

49, 0kB2A0S8hO00 that H0D0&08S
These Serts u Persons.
From The New York Sun.
"Snobs, cads, and eockneys," said an author-
ity upon the subject, 'ars terms that in this
country especially, are often q good deal mixed
ana interchsnged. The fact Ia they express
three wholly distinct IDEAS It may sound
strange to You, but either snob or q eockney
may be gentleman. A cad, of course, can
never oe gentleman, inasmuch a. In England
where the term had its origin, its meaning Is
something the very reverse Of all We under
stand BY the word igentleman.' viii begin
with the snob.
The story has been often told of three men
English railroad carriage The two more SIM
p.y uTesseo men We're dukes, and were &C.
d dna,nteG with each other. The more SLOWLY
uIesseu person was . commercial traveller, who
son got into conversation with the other two.
"A. last the train stopped, and one of the noble
ceived by the porters and others ON the platform
so h,. the commercial traveller, and turning
WINS s 9ha. he hastily asked
n, %Go hood Lord cried the astounded drum
part Of his grace to be chatting away to q cou-
pie OF little snobs like you and mep
,o now. that man was not a snob at all, though
he been a snob he would have seen no especial
conoescension In any duke chatting with him,
a ana, even had he felt little proud of the ex-
aiCeu company he was in, he would never have
mentioned the fact to anybody else.
snob invariably mas q very good opinion
OF himself, but he has this advantage he does
not take the trouble to point out in one way or
another his merits to every one with whom he
comes In contact, for he entertains no shadow
corners as to himself He dresses app with taste
that may often be questioned, but he usually
s b own s1ys
ao0pteo by some other person, 1t Is the
garb he initiates, not the man who is in it.
lie Is above the latter weakness, for he is not
who went to take plunge in a large en-
fosed oatn put did not go in because ne DE-
his bath, and went out without saying u
word about his reason for changing his mind.
salter; but neither did he want to battle with
him.. He was not a cad for cad, had he
decided upon the same course, would have
taken care, quite regardless of the feelings OF
the dry saler to boast OF his for not bath
ing. and have made them public AS possible.
SnObs are often favOrite members OF the highest
and most refined classes OF society, for there
Is, as a rule, nothing cringing, or mean, or re-
puislve about them. They draw very rigid
rules separating social RANKS, and place them
selves, honestly believing they are right, we'll
up in the scale.
THE term cad is not very well known in
America. The person it is applied TO, however,
is u familiar object enough. lie may be very
clever man, and very just and honest man,
tor the black guard is widely distinguished from
the cad. But he is an utterly insuppOrtable fel
low. He never wearies Of telling his cOmpan-
ions what good company he keeps; how the no
Dlllty yeaTn Tor his society, and often ycarn In
vain He knows we'll enough that he is low
natured and unattractiye sort OF u fellow. When
he accidentally drifts into the society where he
processes to move he sinks at once into his
proper position, and makes no attempt to stand
on terms of equality with those around him
though all that is forgotten when he speaks of
the event to his friends the following day.
\ corner lOafer? Oh, no. The corner !oafer is a
blackguard, pure and simple, and much more
dangerous than the cad, who though horrible
bore, Is comparatively harmless.
''Oi course the cad must occasionally ac-
knowledge that he has been beyond his depth,
and this generally occurs when he Is surprised
as III the case OF the commercial traveller the
railroad train, who fancied that he was snOb,
while he was something much worse.
As Tor the cockney, he Is very easily defined.
Long ago the term was used to signify person
very deicately nurtured, but that meaning has
passed away. THE best sailors l have had,'
said a sea captain TO me one day, ARE cockneys,
wnen they are once broken in to the work;
but not one in a million wants to: 60 to sea at
all
''COckney, like cad, is an almast exclusively
London term The cockney may belong to any
grade of society high, low or middle and in
any part of the world man of the loftiest
standing, when questioned as to his national
meaning that he is a Londoner, born and bred
in the city, and thoroughly devoted to it. This
being the meaning of the term, it may be and
sometimes is applied to the people of other
cities: a gentleman in Paris once said TO me:
Il ann going back to New York next week; il is
the only city in the world worth living in Ger
tainiy he Was a New York cockney.