St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-25
THE POETRY OF COURTESY.
American Society Lacking in One OF
the Most desirable Eraits.

American Society Lacking i'm One of
the Most Desirable traits.
The poetry of courtesy" is ut, in Amer
lean society, very intelligently studied; nor
now. it would seem, in French society,
which was so long the acknowledged head
quarters of worldly graces. And the evil
dences of deterioration which are to be OBJ
served in France are in many re-
spects Identical with conditions eX-
listing conditions, which, II
seen only on this side OF the
water, might be thought evidences rather
of arrested development than of deteriora-
ton; but, when found to be of world
wide extent, must be classified under other
laws. These laws it is most important to
discover, that we may know whether they
should be nobly rebelled against or pain
fully submitted to. But as yet little more
has been done to note the facts, one OF the
most important of which is that,
with the increased ease OF in
tercourse between the two sexes.
there is diminutiOn of ease OF intercourse
between the two ages which make up So
ciety-or, more accurately, the three ages,
viz: The girls and boys of 90, the men and
| women of 35, the men and women OF so.
The midway people, from 80 to 40 years
old, serve as sort of connecting chain be-
| tween the wild gayeties and the dull So
brietes of their younger and older ac-
quaitances, and prevent that complete
| ignorance of each other which would
otherwise result from the present
entire mutual exclusion of the young and
the old from the immediate circle of each.
But social intercourse loses half it's value
| if it is not at the same time homogeneous
| md nd To IA q
pany of ones contemporaries is as fatal an
influence as to be always in the company
| of persons of ones own sex. A man or
| woman of SO who cannot make himself or
herself agreeable to girl of Is is wanting
in good breeding; on the other hand
equally lacking is boy OF 20
who can not give pleasure to man or
woman of so. But this good breeding can
be acquired only by practice. Once &C
quired it communicates peculiarly exhi-
larating social enjoyment as all will tes-
tify who have had the good fortune to be
fiattered in their youth by the kindness of
older people and in later years by the good
will of younger people. And few CONVEX
sations are more charming for the
interlocutors themselves, or for by
ISLANDERS, than those in which the
young girl or young man just entering into
life is led to awaken, by the gay audacities
of his ignorance, the deeper thoughts of the
man or woman just passing out OF active
life. The flame like fancies of youth kin
dies the glowing imagination of experience,
and, in the interchange of idea, each, for
the moment seems to gain all the adj
vantages OF the other. Such converse
tions cannot be held at germans nor at
dinners, where most of the gentlemen have
been busted with the stock market all day,
nor at receptions, formal or informal, from
which the young lady of the house is en-
couraged to exclude her father and mother,
and the fathers and mothers of her friends.
They only still linger around the firesides
of pleasant homes, where the habitues of the
house, old and young alike, are equally the
friends of parents and children.