The record-union., 1893-06-22
RANK GROWTH OF CADS.
The Species that is Raised on
American Soil.

Wealth and Have no Higher Aim
Than to be Considered Above
Earning a Living.
A cad is a pitiful creature wherever
found, says the st. Louis Post Dispatch.
But in this country he is more pitiful
than anywhere else, because there is less
excuse for his being, less motive for his
wager and pretense. There should be
no temptation with us to be counterfeit,
since what is genuine is sure of apprecia-
tion, and what is not is equally sure Of
discovery. In the old world, where
rank and caste have been established for
ages, every man of rank or particular
caste is presumed to be, personally and
socially, all that he should be. They who
are known as gentlemen belong to class
and rank as gentlemen by the mere fact
OF belonging to that class. They may not
be, in the new world sense, gentlemen at
all. They may be common blackguards
and, indeed, often are, albeit represent
ing the highest nobility. Hence cads,
who are defined in Great Britain to be
vulgar, lowbred, pretentious fellows,
are lnclted TO initiate their social superb
ors, who may be their moral equals, pos
slbly their Interiors, and to assume to be
all that they are. Being vulgar and low
bred and not of the class which may
overlook vulgarity and low breeding in
Its members but not in others, they are
very apt to be detected and denounced
savagely. A cad runs far more risk of
exposure over there than here, because
every class abroad has its idiosyncrasies
nd he, IL.
ticularly. He is despised by those above
him, distrusted by those on his level, de-
tested by those beneath him, so that
everyone is against him and anxious tor
his discontinue.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN
SPECIES.
On this side Of the sea we do not hear
very much about cads. We feel and
know cad without so designating him.
He may not be so vulgar, so coarse as his
British brother; he may have more edu-
cation and better manners. But he is
fully as pretentlous and more offensive,
since, being an American, he should be
incapable of pretense. he does not
greatly resemble his transatlantic kins-
man, except in being a sham, not gener-
ally, perhaps, but in certain particulars.
He is not, like the English cad, neces-
sarily ill-bred. He may appear we'll on
occasion, and his counterfeit nature may
not be penetrated by most of his associ-
ates. de IS partly a snob, though not
necessarily a hanger-on, and i'll many
ways very different from the cad across
the water, who really is not his proto-
type. Above all he is fictitious gentle
men. He has neither understanding of
nor sympathy with the character. but he
talks of it interminably and preserves a
certain outside resem blance to it. One
OF his blunderS IS that gentlemanhOod de-
pends largely on eXternals, or what might
be named accidents. Consequently, such
phases as ''he lives like gentleman"
"a gentleman must keep up appear
ances,' "a gentleman can afford TO incur
debts" you can't expect a gentlemen to
be severely moral" almost ANYTHING
can be pardoned in a gentleman" are
frequently heard on his lips. There is an
unconscious impertinence in these utter
ances. If they were true he would not
know it, for he is entirely unacquainted
with the animatlng spirit of the class
which he imagines he represents. He
speaks invariably for them from his stu
pendous conceit and from his lack of
suspicion that he is their direct opposite.
The American cad almost always wor-
ships money; is more or less obsequious
to millionaires; is anxious to figure in a
rich set. He is not cured of his desire or
ambition, as one might think he would
be, by having fortune himself. Con-
trariwise, his worship is increased, as
well as his self-importance and egotism
by the fact. He then thinks, having
money Of his own, that it possesses posi-
tive and extraordinary virtue. He is ever
talking about 1t and measuring the world
by its standard.
PROUD OF HAVING RICH HACQUAINTANCES
When he hears the unfamiliar name of
a man he is very apt to ask what he is
worth, and, If worth great deal, how he
got it and how long he was in getting it.
He is fond of telling the number and
names of millionaires who are in his
favorite club. When some man has
achieved fame and distinction in a learned
profession, or in any intellectual way, he
is inclined to pity him because he has so
meager an income, and to add that great
brains get very poor pay. He is too poll
tic to say SO, but he evidently feels a
secret disdain for any man who cannot or
does not make money. The cad who has
made money is not given to miscellan-
eous condolences on the subject. He sell
dom cites his own financial enterprises,
fond as he is of recounung those of Others
preferring, as he would put it, to sink the
shop. If he has Inherited money he Is
almost certain to intimate as much boast
ing of the ignorance OF business as if it
were unworthy of a gentleman. He
would like TO have it believed that his
family had been rich for generations,
though most persons who meet him are
well aware that his father, or grandfather
at furthest, Was wholly self-made and
began life in the humbIest manner.
The sons of rich men very poor at the
start and always sordid, are generally
the worst kind OF cads. They may have
gone through college and have picked up
a lingo composed largely OF slang and
Englishisms, which they think denotes
their fashion, but they are rarely troubled
with Intellect or culture. To ideas they
are hostile, and, indeed, to any mental or
healthful occupation. Their desire is to
he thought fast and To do things that will
make them talked about by their set.
They are seldom very vicious. though
there are exceptions; they have fancy
for affecting wickedness and intimating
after the Byronlc manner, that they have
been guilty of deeds without a name.
Marriage does not, to their mind. impose
any special moral restraint Husbands
cannot be expected 10 reliuquish all their
pleasures and settle down to prosaic do
mesticity. But it is not good form for
them to be quite SO free OF speech as in
their ante matrimonial days.
Cads of this order are addicted to say
ing that they have not made their own
money-one might know this by looking
at them-and that money-making is not
what gentlemen should engage in.
NEW YORK THEIR RADIArING POINT.
They are enormous asses and public
laughing stock, but they do not suspect
il in the least In fact, they know very
little that goes on outside Of their limited
circle, which they consider the choicest
norton of the world. They could not be
as they are by any possibility if they were
not destitute of humor ,humor being a
national trait, but of which they are be-
nignly deprived, perhaps to demonstrate
that, though born on the soil, they are not
and cannot be Americans. Profoundly