The critic., 1891-01-30
LONDON SOCIETY WEN.
Their Manners and ways with women.

Fiom he London 7tic0ydp6.
A careful and-so far rs we have been
able TO compass tan impartial study Of
the young man of the present day has
convinced many persons that he is alb
normally lazy, and that his scliishness is
without parallel in any other period of
our history. A concurrence of the two
vices Is to be traced, they think. to the
fact that he has almost ceased, or at any
rate he is rapidly ceasing, TO dance. II Is
in vain that he will plead the. absorbing
occupations of modern life, or the saddcn-
ing influence of the philosophy of
SChopcnhauer. The plea is idle. II Is not
the overweight student or the pale pessi-
mist alone who declines nowadays to
Join in the may dance; IL is the dashing,
or once dashing militaire.' The singular
boast which was once the monopoly of
the Tenth Hussars will soon be the COM
mon property of every cavalry and in-
fantry regiment of her maiesty's army;
while, as Tor the learned professions, their
members make fresh contributions TO the
row of "wall-flowcrs" every season.
Yet there seems to be no ground for
saying that girls are any less fond of
dancing than they used to be; the partner
difficulty is created by the male sex alone.
In other words, the young man of the
present day, having ceased to care about
this particular amusement himself, Is, in
the majority of cases, too indolent and too
selfish TO take part in 1t tor the sake of
gratifying other persons of that sex
which it Is supposed to be mans duty, no
less than his delight, to attempt to please.
Such self-sacriiicc, however, finds no vo-
taIy in the Fn dc steele youth. To Use his
own expressive phrase, ii is mot good
enough, don't you know" and he declines
il accordingly. The wretch concentred
all in self looks on at a few dances, and
surveys the rows of forlorn and unasked
maidcns who line the sides Of the ball
room, and leaves early for cigarette and
lemon squash at his club. We are pre-
pared, of course, for the answer Which
our young man of the period, thus
roughly but righteously handled" is
likely to make to us. He will say that
all this is word for word--cxcept as to the
cigarette and lemon squash-identica
with what his grandfather once listened
to from his great-grandfather, and re-
peated some thirty years after TO his
father.
There is q speciousness about this argu-
ment which might, perhaps, deceive the
unthinking, and II Is, therefore, well to
remind them of the well-established fact
that the grandfather of the youth of the
present day, although worthy people
enough in many ways, were extremely
prejudiced, whereas their sons, the fathers
and uncles of our contemporary young
men, are admittedly capable of instituting
fair and impartial comparison between
the men and manners of the present and
the past. Instead of resorting to plausible
but fallacious retorts of the ''ad homi-
mem" description we counsel our youths
to resolve with the New Year to cultivate
the virtues of courtesy, kindliness and
self-sacrifce to others, TO determine that
they will display in future chivalrous
attention to ladies and register vow that
elders of their own sex shall never fail to
receive from them the due tribute of def
erence and respect.