Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-10
Compared With the Mode of Lifein the
Untrammeled West.
A DEFENSE OF PHILADELPHIA.
Its Manners MelIOwed by Time and
Good Usage.
TIE WEST WILL GROW LIKE THE EAST
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE D1sPATCH.1


and wealth, as we'll as her phenomenal
growth, that it Is about as well to make
few comparisons and give some facts regard
ing both cities which will be doubtless news
for many badly posted people who are gen.
orally the persons who make the startling
statements about both cities. Will you per-
NIT one who has lived in both places to give
a few points showing that Philadelphia is
not as SO frequently pictured?
1t is quite the thing among certain class
of people who have no knowledge of the
subject to make unworthy comparisons be-
tween Pittsburg and any city mentioned,
especially Philadelphia. The fact that
they have happened to pass along Chestnut
street on one or two occasions causes them
to think that they are thoroughly posted in
the city streets, inhabitants and business.
There are very few people here who are so
posted. In the first place, it is quite COM
mon thing to say that Philadelphia society
is very hard to get into, unless ones grand
father was Of social Importance. That is
only to certain extent true. All good
society is hard, or should be hard, to get
into, until the candidate can show intelli-
gence, good manners, fair appearance and
good conduct, and other qualifications. 1t
is common thing among the generality of
Western people to think that they are as
good as anybody, and good thing it is that
they do, for that very feeling of pride holds
them up in many an emergency. But the idea
that because one stands we'll in particular
community in the West is entitled to walk
into the parlors and hearts Of the people of
the East, without previous favorable &C.
quaintance and the possession of known
merit, is rather ridiculous, and the idea
that they should be able to do SO is simply
absurd.
LOOKING TOWARD THE RISING SUN.
The character and habits line of thought
and manner of thinking, mode of speech
and forms OF expression Of the Eastern peo-
pie are different in many ways from those
of the West. The people of the East
not infrequently think the mannerisms
of the West loud, intrusive, obtrusive,
elusive and aggressive. The East has
passed through the chrysalis state. The
several centuries it has passed through as
the light Of the nation, being, in fact,
until within the past 80 or 40 years the focus
of the whole continent, have caused her
to become rather proud of her position
as the Mecca to which so many great minds
are attracted; toward which and from which
intelligence ebbs and flows in large volumes.
To use a metaphor, We always look 10 the
east for light; to the rising, and not to the
setting, sun.
When trade journal is started, when a
new mandatory is opened, when a new
trade is established, new enterprise is
commenced, the first efforts to get patronage
and trade are toward the East. When a
person is afflicted with disease which he is
afraid is mortal, he naturally goes toward
the East as the grand focus Of surgery.
When a new book is written the Eastern
publishers are looked to for help to publish
it. When elegant furnishing, grand archi-
lecture, the arts and sciences, new modes,
new measures OF any kind are sought
the East is the place to which it is most
natural to look for what is wanted. It
is farther toward the light, toward the older
accomplishments, finished center of intelli-
gence and civilization and of the art and
science. The man with his new invention
or patent naturally looks to the East. The
man of books and letters f1ds more encOur-
agement, sympathy and assistance there
than in the West, where he finds people all
on the rush with no time to give him help
ing hand. Many a sigh escapes from those
whose dream for long years has been to ac-
cunulate sufficient wealth to take fondly
cherished thought to where he knows light
can be shed upon it and declining years
made bright by its fulfllment. Many who
have acquired great wealth or even good
sum sufficient to support life of ease and
happiness, turn toward
THE OLDER CIVILIZATION,
for there are multitudes of attractions, which
are the more attractive because anticipative,
because seen through the glamour of misty
distance, because they are an entire change
from the hard work and prosaic life hitherto
experienced, and there is enjoyment and
hope and ecstacy in the change.
Westward the course Of empire takes its
way" toward the setting sun, leaving the
brilliant East and its allurements far be-
hind. People for one cause or another go
far away from their cradles to build up new
homes in the savage wilderness. Human
nature isolated becomes in measure rugged
as well as strong; it partakes of its sur
roundings, and consequently the finish of
Western society is not so marked as that of
the East, because of its having grown up so
recently from the marshes and prairies and
of the very recent frontier, which has now
been driven back until its location is
unknown. The rough lives which were ex-
perienced BY the new settlers made them
and their children rugged in their manners
for many years. But the generous, sturdy,
honest, sober, industrious members of each
community soon form q social circle,
which improves with each generation, and
strengthens as wealth and intelligence in
crease. Each community, too, comes in
time to have its various circles formed on |
the basis of congeniality of taste, and in a
measure as exclusive as those of the East. |
Caste in India is much divided, but there
are castes in this Christian land which are
as well known as any in far off India.
So people who come up out of the West, |
having stood high at home, run against a |
barbed wire fence around social life in the |
East, which says very plainly to them to 60 |
around by gates and get their tickets; that |
they cannot get in without acquaintance |
and other credentials. There are various |
castles in each Eastern city of wealth, of birth,
Of science, Of art, of intellect. The "FOur
the "Knickerbockers, the |
Pilgrims, each one thinks that itself |
is grand and exclusive By some of these ap-
plieations for admittance is as rigidly ex-
amined as French passport on German
frontier.
THE GENTLE QUAKER SPIRIT.
There is no trouble in Philadelphia, Bos-
ton or New York in any person getting into
heir own class or condition in life. provided
hey have the recommendation of some one
Known to that class or coterie. But every
,ne who goes to London wants to see the
Queen, and everybody who goes to Phila-
lelphia wants to be invited to the house of
George W. Childs or of Tony Drexel, or to
he millionaire houses on Walnut street,
ind if they are not given an opportunity to
lir themselves in swelldom, they come home
ind say spiteful things of Philadelphia,
never thinking that the lines are yery little
lifEerent there than they are here in the
anne degree of life.
"Oh, Philadelphia is miserable country
Village, with grass growing on her streets
md goats and tin-spirit cans in her back al