The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-31
Society as Seen by Rev. t. Dixon.

Society as Seen by Rev. T. Dixon.
The Rev. Thomas Dixon. of New York,
doesn't purpose TO drop back into OBJ
security He Intends that his friends in
his native state of North Carolina shall be
kept aware of the fact that he is steadily
forging to the front in his efforts to
achieve pulpit notoriety He had become
quite well known before he was arrested
for shooting song birds on Long Island, or
was sued for libel by Tammany chief
tains, or had that well remembered news
paper controversy with an Atlanta min
lister, but he has become better known
since. His sensational sermons are a feat
urc of Sunday life in New York.
Last Sunday he told his congregation
what he thought of the best society"
1t is fair to assume that he had in mind
Mr.. McAllister's -Four Hundred. In the
course of his remarks he said "There
is a certain coterie or clique of people in
every great city who arrogate to them
selves the title society This so-called
society is ia one sense insignificant; in
another sense it is practically omnipotent
The little clique, so far from constituting
society, is simply mob. Their arrogance
is something sublime. The impudence
with which they assert their right to the
title which designatcs the solidarity of
the race is something amazing. They as
sumo that they are the aristocracy of the
world. As a matter of fact, they are an
aggregation of all sorts and condi-
tons of light-headed, insignificant
people. They could all be dropped
from the world tomorrow and
the worlds business would not suffer.
The pretensions of this set are accepted
by thousands of people as facts, and their
ideals are bowed down to as though they
were the deliverances of the oracles of the
Most High God. This insignificant, light
headed set of people are only worthy of
study and discussion because of this tire
mendous influence upon the ranks below
them. 1t has been forcefully said that
society is divided into but two classes
namely, the masses and the asses. The
more we study this statement the more
absolute we see its truth. The so-called
high society of our great cities is in its
pretensions humbug, in its customs the
incarnation of vulgarity in its standard
of life essentially immoral and corrupt
ing"
1t may be that the Rev. Thomas Dixon
was influenced largely in what he said
by the accounts in the New York
papers of the conduct of some of the -Four
Hundred at the ball given in honor of In
fanta Eulalie. A Philadelphia paper,
commenting on the published accounts of
the ball, said: "What is called and mis-
called our best society never made a big
ger ass of it's collective self than at the
infanta ball, Friday night, according to
all the New York papers. The poor women
who acted as 'patronesses' were a nice,
respectable lot, who probably ordinarily
know about how to behave, but in the
vain desire to make believe that New
York for one precious moment had a court,
they managed to make egregious fools of
themselves"
The Rev Mr.. Dixon is all wrong in his
estimate of what is called society. In try
ing to be sensational he sacrifices the
truth. There are foolish people and bad
people in what is called society, but the
percentage of those who are foolish and
bad IS not sufficiently great to justify an
arraignment like that of the Rev Mr..
Dixon's. There are foolish people and
bad people in all ranks, and it would be
strange if there were none among those
who are called society people.