Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-07-16
SOCIETY ANALYZED.
A Georgia Lady Compares Society of
the OIden Times with the Present.

nO1T reverence TO Inc custom Oh Aef
fathers, and AYERS that society OF the
present day is not what 1t used to be
that it has sadly degenerated from
the high moral and intellectual stan~
dard to which it attained IN her time;
that the old, grand manners, courtly
grace, and urilliant repartee have, IN
a great measure, passed away. Society
now is all sham, a glamour. and
vanity Of vaHities = nothing but
husks.
Being familiar with the society peo-
pie of the present time, their coming
and going, their private and public
life, I partake largely of my grand
mothers view and heartily indorse
the verify Of her sayings. In her
time they were too regardful of social
convention to lend coun tenance to a
person without weighing well the
pros and cons, and to gain entree into
the best society your moral and intel
lectual worth and social position were
questioned. Now, all that is neces-
sary to admit one into the so-called
''best society" is to dress in the pre-
valling mode, dance well, be fully
conversant with the latest gossip, and
speak glibly all the fashionable slang.
Popularity in such society can not
commend itself; it savors too strong
of the mob.
It is a sad fact that society degener-
ates AS the age advances. In the old
en- time girls were educated with
view to higher and nobler purposes,
and to fill useful positions, and the
boys for men Of integrity and indus
try. Now, the former are.educated
/ TO make a show, and the latter to aid
the exhibition.
Having all the advantages of learn
ing which our colleges and public
schools can bestow, these are cast
lightly aside or perverted to ignoble
purposes. A girl now enters society,
it seems, with but one aim or ambi-
ton, and that is to try to manage to
extract the greatest amount of enjoy
meat from her life. It sooa becomes
a continued round of excitement; no
begins to plan for another. She finds
it dolce far niente. Her hours of
leisure are either slept or idled away,
or spent in planning some fitting
dress in which. to appear at the even
ing party. Occasionally she acquaints
herself with the plot of the latest nov
Ell or the notes of fashionable piece
of music. Dwelling much on the
contemplation of such little things,
they soon lose the intellectual appe-
tite. AS for quiet domestic felicity,
society girls never dream Of it. They
soon become wholly dependent upon
excitement for happiness, And-unless
they have something of this kind con-
tinually in view they soon sink into
apathy, and at home are utterly
wretched. The parents of such girls
usually practice strict economy in do
nestle affairs, the mother doing all
the necessary work, and denying her~
self many comforts that her daughters
may have a succession of silk and
satin dresses to enhance their beauty,
and fly about from one place of pleas
ure to another, hoping that they may
make wealthy alliance. In nineteen
cases out of twenty they fail to do so.
Seldom can we find society girl of
our day who can reason, reflect, feel,
Judge, discern, discriminate, or fur
nished with a stock of ideas, princi-
pies, and qualifications ready to be
applied, as occasion may demand, to
each of their respective situations as
daughters, wives, mothers. Dwarfed
by society and fashion, and leading a
life OF idlepess, dims the mental per
eeptions and enervates frame nat
urally vigorous. Society now is heart
less and shallow, with it's silly amuse-
ments and soulless rivalries, Parties
are stale and improbable, with the
same bowling, grinnlng nonsense, the
same bosh talked, the same tiresome
routine from beginning to end.
| Commend US to the society of
women who have higher and nobler
aims, whose horizon is not bounded
by the coming man, and who has q
purpose in life whether she meets him
or not, to those who make life worth
living.
The society mer Of our day must
not pass unnoticed. Few men live
through the first period of manhood
without strong temptations to be con-
sidered society men. 1t becomes their
ambition. The idea looms grandly
among those vanities that hedge a
mans approach to maturity. He soon
becomes an adept IN society tactics,
which match him with others of the
same stamp. He conquers all such
annoyances as truth or sincerity,
which may sometimes sting his con-
science. He studies moral sparring,
makes it his art to be admired, but
seldom to be trusted. To keep up with
the fashion of the times. to be ignor>
ant of PLAIN things and plain, honest
people, "who do not go with their
set" and whom he stigmatizes as the
dangerous "second-class, to be know
ing in all gossip. familiar with all the
figures in the german, dance well,
and wear ballroom honors with in
difference, to hold fair place in the
silly nothings usually discussed. to
affect an earnestness Of look and
action which seems full of pleading
and yet ask nothing; to make show
for the admiration of those who have