The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-08-26
MAUD TO MARIA.
Graphic Account of soeiety's Life and
Demands.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass, May 21st, 1887
DEAR MARIA: You must have known
that in spite of my silence all these
months that 1 have wanted to talk to
you, and that but for some good reason
l should have written long since. But
you have no idea how time flies when
you are more or less member of $50
ciety' in place like this. Think of me,
your demure, timid, afraid of her own
shadow, country friend, becoming
in few short months so engrossed with
the absolute demands that society
makes upon one in place like this, that
she really haN not had a chance to write
to her dearest friend on earth. But it's
the fact, Maria. q! where shall begin!
And when 1 have begun, then, where
shall end?
How often do 1 wish you were here
and living, too, with me at dear Uncle
Johns: what real nice long gal talks we
could have together, discussing the men
and the women, and the things and the
events as they run Off the reel of daily
happenings. It's too bad that my Uncle
John is not your Uncle John, then we
both might have been invited to spend a
year with him; so more is the pity, say
l, that he is not yours, too. There you
are shut up in that dingy little place
where the mountains seem to forbid the
sun either TO rise or set walking five
miles every morning to little old tum-
BILE down school house that stands al
most in the centre of county, to teach
stupid, red-headed, freckle-faced girls,
ard crooked-legged, cross-eyed boys,
while l have all the comforts and heaps
of the luxuries of life that 1 really am
not entitled to, and many of them no use
for.
But what shall tell you about first.
60 everywhere, you know; to Thurs
day evening meetings, to Reilly's Che is
our swell dancing master, teaches you
how to turn your toes out and walk so
you can balance your tall hat and "be a
assemblies, indeed everything that is
goableto. You know Uncle John and
Aunt Sarah are socially "away up"
Dear Uncle John is so nice; to be sure,
he has to do heaps of things for ''the
good of the cause" that he does not
really want to and sometimes rebels, but
bless mel when Aunt Sarah looks his
way and says, "John!" in that peculiarly
persuasive tone of hers, Uncle John
comes down gracefully and at once. o
Maria! this slang is awfully perfect and
comes in so pat. Some people frown at
you for using it and say its vulgar, but
it isn't else the best people wouldn't use
it The more gracefully you sling it the
more ''chic" you are. Do you know
what ''chic' is; what it means? really
don't, but one thing do know, and that
is when anybody has been abroad, if it s
no further abroad than Holyoke, they al
wavs come back fnll of "chic:" so
guess it's not hard to find, altho' after
looking about pretty closely for it my
self no one has told me that l have got
it. But I'll have it before my year is up,
for guess it's something that covers a
multitude of sins, and the more sins you
have to hide the more Chic you are.
You know Uncle John came here years
ago from our little town and went into
commerce (?) that is picked lots Of
things that other people had thrown
away and didn't know what to do with
them and sold them. Well the dear old
man prospered greatly, and now most
everything he wants in this world has
been added unto him. But Aunt Sarah
is the spirit of the household, and some
times Of othor peoples too. Her mind
lay fallow, reckon, all the earliOr part
of her life, and its natural wealth was
kept so snug that when the seeds of So
cial education were dropped into it they
sprouted and grew like as did Jonah's
gourd. It's simple wonderful what a
growth of mental grain Aunt Sarah's
brain field has yielded. All the solid
canals in thought and in literature, the
! flowers and vines and pretty little things
that make you say show lovely!" and
all that, don't seem in her line; probably
the soil is too strong, for it does seem to
me as if nature spent her beauty where
she sometimes had put the thinnest and
poorest mould.
You see, dear Maria, we have got in
our best society great many people OF
rare mental culture; some of them were
born and educated to it, and so are not
surprised at their gifts; then there are
others that found it later on in life like
Aunt Sarah did, and when they discov
cred that they had it, too, and they haG
to sweep pretty diligently some of then
to find it, they rushed out among theil
neighbors and kinsfolk, not to say re
joice with me for have found what wa
lost flor you see Maria it was never los
really, but only just found as they fine
gold mines, you know, but to say
NOW we will found a society and W,
will meet about at our respective house,
and we will have a simple collation. o
such edibles as carry phosphorus ant
starch abundantly, and we will drink o
the cheering tea carefully prepared, upol
whose translucent breast shall float
dainty, thin slice of lemon, and unde
the gentle stimulus these dainties will
furnish us we will discuss in quiet
lady-like way, topics for the culture O
our dear female minds. Not too deepl
or boisterously, oh dear no! lest we ge
beyond our depth and are lost! but W
will just dabble little, wade in yOr
know about up to our ankles, so +
speak, where we can splash, jump u
and down and cry out in our prett
voice 80, how nice! is it not grand?
and all that sort of thing.
Well, Maria, they have got them! SC
cieties to the right of them; societies t.
the left of them, volley and thunder, ant
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