The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-05-01
A Kansas City Opinion.


riette, " in the Wichita EAGLE, has been
| brave enough to print list of the cliques
| in Wichita society. The list composes
six crowds. and it is almost typical of the
social divisions in every Kansas town of
1900 people and over. In such towns there
is always the old crowd. This crowd is
made up or the old settlers of some wealth,
or who were once wealthy. and who have
contrived through the female portion of
the family to keep up" some way. Here
are the judges and the colonies, honor
ables and the doctors and the miscellane-
| Gus celebrities of the place with their
wives and elder daughters. This crowd
doesn't do very much. You will see it
out in full force at weddiag anniversary
or an extremely formal reception given on
some occasion" Its members divide up
into little tours and skies and Fights and
play cards all winter, and take the fami-
lies somewhere together in summer.
They like to entice a young man and a
young woman there together and gloat
over them, and watch the consequences.
In this crowd there is one ghost-the fear
Of being thought too old to go with the
young crowd. and at that dread time of
being ineligible for the old crowd. The
young crowd is the unmarried set. 1t is
the most shifting of all the sets, and the
easiest to break into. A little tact, a little
taste and pretty face will admit any girl
on earth, if she behaves herself. A dress
suit, $40 a week, a good stock of adjec-
tlves, little barney and Discrimination
to talk too much will give any young man
position. When there is scarcity of
young men and times are hard, even less
than this is required OF young man, He
can then go farther than the girl with
face. She may only be invited to big do
ings, but he is out to all the little 'few
friends" performances that figure in the
Sunday papers. Altogether, the social
opportunities of the young man are
very extended in Kansas just now,
On the outskirts of this young crowd
exclusive set is another set of young
people. The young married folks and
the young single folks mingle in it pretty
freely. 1t is the hash of left over young
crowds who have dropped out for season
for some reason or other and have never
got clear back Occasional new corners
drift into it either in ignorance or in dis
pair and occasionally it loses a member
by promotion or by marriage, but it
changes little and is always making re-
marks about itself, and is generally dis
satisfied with itself These four are the
secular crowds. Then there is the religious
crowd. This crowd deyours the strong
coffee and the refractory chicken of the
church social. In it the young and old
mingle in blissful harmony until o'clock,
ell I
the old folks sit around and wait for their
daughters or go home and leave them to
be brought home by the young men. The
members of this crowd affect to despise
the members of all the other crowds and
like to have the preacher preach about the
sin of cards and dancing, and throw out
insinuations about the camel and the eye
of the needle. The grocers and
the lawyers with large families
and the foxy doctors are
the leaders of this circle And on the
outside of all of these crowds is the rough
and tumble crowd. Its members are the
Assyrians who come down like wolf on
the fold and raid their neighbors with
surprise parties. They are the hume and
vandals who furnish the fresh blood for
ueCdylnR nome. luis composed Oh country
people, the county officers and wealthy
farmers and wives who move to town, and
see no reason who they should be primp
and proper when they go out At dances
they insist on having lots of Virginia
reels. at home parties they play romping
children's games whether the hostess
cares or not A finger bowl at the feast
would cause an instruction, and the sug
gestion of anything like a regular course
would cause panic. The daughters of
this crowd gradually work up in the social
scale; the eldest follows Der father and
mother. but by the time the youngest is
ready To go out. she has the house furn-
ished all over down stairs and is pretty
enough to get in the best crowd She
and her husband live in a lovey-dovey
house and the cycle is completed. They
are generally little ashamed of Mary
who was married in the Azoic period TO
but are glad enough to send for
her some dark night and when she is there
so quiet and matter-of-fact, lovey -dovey
looks up from the pillow and smiles at
ootsey- toosey who peeks in the door, and
they are not afraid any more.