The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-12
FOLLIES OF THE TIMES.
THREE CLEVER WOMEN ON THE
rO1BLEs OF OUR RAPID AGE.

not Overlook-Social and Moral
Tendencies OF the Times s. sorne
Things Which Are Askew-Ars We
Progressing Too Fast P--Lsvins In
False Positions Religious Beliefs In
Certain Social Circles When women
We're What Men Wished Them,
Some Things We Think Are None
of Our Business"
(Copufaht)
NEW YoRK, June 11.-They were two
women. Clever women. And for once in
nv life was the listener. They were dis
cnssing to-day-its follies and its foibles. its
vices and its lack of virtue. its loudness and
its extreme stiffness. One Of them called it
the age of anesthetics- other said it was
the age Of extreme contrast, but they agreed
in calling it the age of vulgarlty.
Said one: 81 dimly remember when to be
IN society, meant the possession of some
virtue or talent. If you were stupid, you
were received because you were good; il you
were ugly, you were welcome because you
were bright If you were both STUPID and
ugly, you got a welcome just the same if
your manners were good. A number of peo-
ME we're welcome because their grand
fathers and grandmothers had always been.
but, above everything else, it was demanded
that your manners should be good. To-day
nobody cares anything about manners.
THE FASHIONABLE WOMAN KICKS
the unfortunate dog who is down and
toades to the man or woman who can give
her something.
1T is the age of commerce. And the
woman who Is polite, courteous and con-
siderate, when she is woman in the social
swim, is so for value received. The trade
instinct is strong in her, and even In her
love affairs she does not write scraps of
poetry about the man she secretly adores,
but under lock and key she keeps, not
book of opinions or poems, but a blank
book, and the cashier at the bank could
probably read the riddle of that in way that
would surprise you. The fashion
able woman in New York has all the
arrogance Of an English duchess, all the
knowledge of vice of a French princess,
added to which is the vulgarity of manner
peculiar to a woman who puts money before
everything else. Society asks of her that
she will make it have a good time, and
that's all it does ask. And If she ia suffi-
GENTLY we'll placed, she can make that good
time what man would call a bowling
spree. or she can make it SO intensely
stupid that every sin she has ever com.
mitted is forgiven.
blonde here whom men know to be a wicked
woman, but about whom every woman will
say, 20, she is all right, she is too stupid to
be anything else" Her stupidity is her
charm, for the men who are near her feel as
if they had been lulled into quietness by
some sort of new and pleasing anodyne."
THE WILD CRAZE FOR MONEY.
THE other woman said: you are right
about one thing. When the elevated rail-
road begins to take possession of a city then
nobody stops to think and when people stop
thinking they stop doing anything that is
worth while in this world. Our million
aires don't encourage the arts. o, no. All
they do is to give big dinners, vulgar in
their muchness; wear big diamonds, off
color because they are so big; speak bad
English, which is excused on account of the
gold they possess, and live, die, and thank
goodness, are forgotten. You and | sit here
and think this out, and puzzle our brains as
60 what is the cause aud what will be the
effect. The cause is that same wild
craze for money. A man makes a fortune,
and the women OF his establishment eat,
drink and are merry. He hasn't time to be
merry with them. He is the slave of the
telephone and Of the ticker. and, although
he possesses millions, be shivers for fear he
will lose a few thousands. He is the out
ward expression OF industry. The women,
having nothing to do, make it as trivial and
sometimes as wicked as possible, and when
they do bear children, 1t goes without sayS
ing that they inherit the vices of their
mothers and the meannesses Of their fathers.
That's what the future will be-"
But" said the other, show do you ac-
count for its"
ARE WE PROGRESSING TOO FAST2
10 this way: Women talk to men about
things they wouldn't have whispered to
each other twenty-five years ago. My
mother says that when she was girl that
If such thing as a scandal came about in
the neighborhood, it was barely whispered,
the young people knew nothing about it,
and the evil doors kept out of society alto
Rether, or went abroad to hide their shame.
Nowadays there is apparently no such
thing as evil doing. The dictionary has
changed all that. To take your neighbours
wife is no longer given the ugly name that it
is called in the Bible-it is simply little
affair, nobody lies, they just make things
pleasant by conceallng the unpleasant
truth; nobody is dishonest who refuses to
pay his debts, he is simply a little incon-
venienced for money. Then the books and
newspapers have encouraged the prevailing
tone. In French much can be written that
Is amusing and nothing more; much more
is written that, taking up some
great vital question of to-day. may
heed TO mention what the vice is
S4ou 40 az Iu0 EOOG Vi dll Zig eNll- Our
language is brutal. and when these books
are translated that which was merely funny
is made naughty, that which was great
moral question has It's greatness .oosoursd
aud the nastiness of the vice faunted to the
world at large. And everybody reads these
books, with a result that can bs imagined.
Spades become familiar things, and nstu-
rally the rake and the hoe are equally COM
oned with it. To call spade spade may
Dc desirable occasionally but the average
woman doesn't have TO be thrown much
with spades, and there 10 no resson why she
need lard her conversation with the story
OF their existence"
LIVING IN FALSE POSITIONS.
Then" answered the other woman, "you
put deal of 1t ON the people who write l
20 myself. But what can you do? Some
body writes you up personally, writes
series OF lies about you. You are made
wretched. But knowing your world you
realize that explanation is alwaysa blunder.
mat though society laughs, and your
enemies were delighted at the scoring
mat you received, still that friends
and foes alike would forget in
another twelve hours unless you at
tempted to explain, aud then it would be a
case OF charge and counter charge, and that
you Will be doing the wisest thing il you
K6eep quiet and continue to do as you please.
nlght and wrong? OF course, there are such
enings-that is, we find out that man is