New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-11-16

not display any gratitude or appreciation OF the
sacrifice made in the surrender of the seat. But
does not this In itself constitute admission Of
the decline Of manners? favor which Is only
conferred with the manifest expectation Of some
return-let it be even only smile bow OF
Observation-Disclosures nne-tenths of it's value.
II is like the hospitality Of the host who permits
his guests to feel that he regards them as the
| obliged, instead of the obliging, party. And
confess that to the man who on the Sixth Avenue
Elevated road occasionally abandons his seat to
some unusually pretty and stylish woman, in the
plainly manifested hope of getting bcwitching
smile-or even something more-in return, pre-
fer the manners of the weary hodcarrier ON the
Third or Second Avenue line who will cheerfully
give up his seat to even an ugly woman without
any show Of sacrifice, and will then try to
sip away unobserved, at any rate to avert his
gaze, so as to avoid the necessity OF any KIND OF
acknowledgment on the part of the person whom he
has obliged 1t is the hodcarrier on the East Side
who gives evidence of courtesy of heart, of chiv-
arous forgetfulness of self ard of instructive con-
sideration for the feelings of othersnot the gentle
man of more or less leisure on the Sixth Avenue
road. But, then, the hodcarrier has probably not
had the opportunity of studying manuals Of Ell
quette, of perusing the work Of Ward Nc
Allister.
Although have confined my remarks on the
decline of manners in New-York to references to
the altered conditions of hospitality and to the
discourteous selfishness to be witnessed every day
i'm public conveyances, it must not be imagined
that the change for the worse is limited to these
two phases of everyday life. 1t is unfortunately
apparent in everything and is gradually destroy
ing all those charms and graces OF daily inter-
course which 90 so far to redeem and neutralizc
the monotonous vulgarity of existence in the
nineteenth century. OF course there are some eX-
ceptiOns, some mel who have remained impervlous
to the surrounding influences, and who have sue
ceeded in preserving the old-time winning SIM
plicity of manner and courtesy OF heart free from
the contamination of the manuals of etiquette.
But they alos constitute small minority and
only serve to bring out in stronger and more dis
pleasing relief the bad manners of the majority.
New-York has indeed become topsy-turvey
world since first visited it. Not only do the
men object to surrender their seats in public con-
veyances to ladies on the ground that the latter
occasionally fail to express their gratitude for
courtesy which is due to the fair sex as right
and not as a mere favor, but the women even give
mp their places to men. who nine times out Of ten
are guilty of the identical neglect which they
ascribe to ladies. This may appear to some in
the light of an exaggerated statement But
single illustration will suffice to prove its truth.
During the whole of last winter q sweet-faced,
white-hared old lady made paint of accompany
ing every morning, her twelve thirteen year
old granddaughter 10 the latter's school in the
neighborhoOd of Twenty tSrd-st Boarding the
downtown train on the west side at Eighty
fourth-st, the cars were, as rule, comparatively
empty: but by the time that Fiftieth-st. was
reached there hardly standing-room left.
With a consideration for others that was in keep
ing with her white hair, since it belongs to ON
older generation, the old lady invariably made
point of causing her granddaughter to give up her
seat as soon as the car became crowded to one or
another of the business men on their way down.
town. the child riding the remainder of the way
either standing up reclining against her grand
mothers knee. Although this little scene was
enacted every weekday morning throughout the
entire winter, yet there were only two solitary Oc-
casons on which the to whom the seat was
surrendered thought it worth the trouble to thank
either the old lady or the young girl the latter a.
beautiful creature, delicate and frail-looking as
some figurine of SAKE porcelain, and who certainly
was less fitted to stand up and submit to the rude
jostling of the crowd than the man whom she
had abandoned her place.
This absence of Difference toward women pre-
walls throughout Asia, from the Mediterranean
shores of the Holy Land to Japan. have like
wise observed it among Abyssinians, who, although
protesting Christianity and holding the Virgin
Mary in high honor, betray their Asiatic origin
by their contempt for woman. Wives, daughters
and sisters never allowed to sit at the same
table with their husbands, fathers or brothers.
Mothers-n-law prohibited from the slightest
intercourse with their sons-in-law, and if they
happen to meet the latter in the street are ex.
ns<h 4r% o. xl~sv <oan
1t is not without some suspicion of an arriere
pensee that the Western States accustomed to
describe NewYork an Eastern city," and it
remains to be whether the increasing ORR
entalism Of the attitude toward women on the part
of its well-to-do men will ever extend to the adop
ton of the Abyssnan code of ethics in the matter
of mothers-in-law.
Even in JAPAN a country which is so loud and
impOrtunate in its demands for recognition as a
civilized nation, and concerning the enlightenment
and progress of whose inhabitants much has
been written, the same contempt for woman pre-
ON the occasion of my hrst arrival at Yokohama.
the principal native hotel in the native quarter
of the town. to lunch with japanese fellow
traveller, who, after spending several years
In one of the great capitals Of Europe as
Ambassador of the Mkado, had been called home
TO assume the Presidency of the Senate. AS |
entered the long, low room that constituted the
salon d honne9r OF the est ha,,asd became
EXcellency and the members of his family and
household, who had come down from Toxic to
greet their lord and master The latter was
standing before mirror at the further end of the
room brushing the exceedingly scanty remnants of
his hair with pair of magnificent ivory and silver
hair brushes of European manufacture and of
gigantic dimensions. While thus engaged there
entered from another door procession of ladies
and children, every one of them crawling on all
fours. The foremost of them an elderly
dame of princely lineage and high rank who
was the wife Of the ex-Ambassador. She was.
followed by a couple of younger women, the
deputy wives or Hagars, if may be permitted to
The remainder of the PROSTATE cortege made
up Of cousins and aunts and of children Of the
wife and deputy wives. Every two or three
floor with their foreheads and afte- drawing deep
breath i'm token of respect wDlil. express in the
most deferental language hopes that their lord had
had a pleasant voyage and that he had enjoyed
his stay abroad. When they reached the middle
of the room they stopped. and after few more
CANA oheiSances DurinQ the entire interview. |