The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1891-11-14

characteristics in this matter of so
ciety. A man does not enjoy it, Sc
he stays at home. A woman perse-
veres through the round of stiff recep
lions, afternoon teas, and long drawn
out dances where partners were
not coming home from each with q
great wearincss and consciousness OF
inadequate compensation for the en-.
durance expended, and yet continues
lest she fall into that abhored list OF
people whom nobody knows"
~.
There are a great many men who
are evidently social creatures but
who refuse to give evidence Of it in
accordance with established practice
They refuse to call upon two or three
hundred people, but they thoroughly
enjoy visiting few friends as the
spirit moves them. State entertain
ments are not to their taste, but they
do not neglect smaller affairs where
they can reasonably expect lack OF
stiffness and some degree of individu-
ality in the people.
They Indignantly repudiate the
term society men, If some misguid-
ed individual applies it to them, and
really, the narrow sense in which we
use it cannot possibly include them.
Yet in the rightful sense of the word
they are society men, and woman
who ought to know said in my hear
ing the other day, that it was from
their ranks that the best husbands
in the world came. She had married
one of them.
Now, all this talk about the diff
culties of society when men fail to
appear, doubtless goes to prove how
very important the dear creatures
are, fact entirely unnecessary to
demonstrate since the time when
Paul emphatlcally announced it,
Indeed ifthat uncompromising old
apostle had been anything of $50
ciety man" himself, and INDUCED in
visits to this frivolous sphere, he
would be abundantly satisfied with
the way the society woman hopes
and expects, and longs for his com
ing.
x*4
1t grieves one to look back over
his life and see how much more rare
were friends than he thought at the
time they were. From large circles
of acquaintance he finds but one
here and there to whom be feels that
he can give the name 1t reminds
me of what white haired Professor
said to me when | was a student.
Never despise a friend, never me-
glect even the humblest. You will
find that after a long life, some ten
or a dozen will comprise all you can
rightfully claim as your own"
Perhaps one obtains broader
view of what friendship means as the
years go by, and grows less ready to
proffer the gift of what seems more
valuable to him, yet for all that, the
narrowed circle seems cruelty small,
the hearts so few on whose enduring
love we can rely.
~
We hear much of the brilliant di-
plomacy of our Minister to Berlin in
obtaining the removal of duty on
American pork. The German people
are demanding also that the duty on
imported grain be abolished. 1t is to
the persistency and earnestness of
these demands that we owe the laud-
ed result rather than to the clever
ness of our American diplomats.
Five months ago the Chancellor of
the Empire denied that there was
any scarcity of food in Germany.
This is fact now too patent to ad-
nit of any denial, and the clamor of
the people is increasing for untaxed
food. The government is loath to
give up this source of income, and
says that without it it can not pay
the pensions it has promised. It
would seem that there is something
radically wrong abouta system that
would literally take the bread from
the mouths of the workingmen in or
der to pension certain class, even
though, as in this case, the class con-
sists of workingmen over seventy
years of age. The pension seems well
enough, but it should be collected
from source better able to bestow
it.
We have a pension roll in this
country to which politicians refer as
a monument of their party's gener-
GUS spirit when making patriotic
speeches at Grand Army Reunions,
and rub their hands with glee when
they discuss the certainty
with which they may count upon
the pensioned votes when any ques-
ton of curtailing government expen-
SEES is raised.
Leaving out of consideration the
advisability of maintaining such an
enormous list of pensioners, many of
whom never even saw the smoke of
distant battlefield, it would seem
that those who have at heart the
prosperity of the people as whole
and not the enrichment of favored
few, weuld advocate the removal of
tax from the articles that for rich
and poor alike constitute the neces-
stiles of life, and the raising OF the
required revenue from the sources
where the burden would not rest so
heavily.
The German people are crying out
to-day, snake the pensions out of
the incomes of the rich, and give us
food free of duty" and the voice of
the workingman is growing each day
louder and clearer. He is thinking
out his own salvation, and he will
not long be at the beck and call of
the professional politician. and when
he asserts bis own independence of
action then in truth will we have,
and not till then, a government for
the people and by the people.
~
There is one sort of man we meet
in society who is very good to look
utcn, but we wish he were not there.
There are not many Of him, but one
is too many He usually stands
against the wall with mind either
distracted trrm his sourronndinQe
or occupied with little personal exer
vises that render him embarrassing.
= = III Il 4 +