The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-01-08
THE SINS OF SOCIETY. 3"
NOTICING ORIGINAL IN THEM, SAYS
OUIDA, NOT EVEN ORIGINAL SIN.

Everything is Weary, Flat, Stale and
Unpr ofitable, says the Aged Au-
thoress, Because It Has Been Done
Before-She Finds Fault With All
That Is, and De mands q Change, But
Doesn't Say What.
From the FortntohtIy Reuie,U.
Some clever people have of late been writ
ing great deal about society. taking En-
glIsh society as their especial theme. But
there are certain facts and features in all
modern society which they do not touch ;
perhaps they are too polite. or too polite
In the first place they seem to accept, even
while attacking them, smart people as ele>
CANT people, and combine the two together {;
the two words are Synonymous in their
minds, but are far from being no in reality.
Many leaders Of the smart sets are wholly
unreined in taste, loud in manner and fol-
lowed merely becauee they please certain
personages spend or seem to spend pro-
fusely, and are seen at all the conspicuous
gatherings Of the season in London and
wherever else society congregate. This is
WHY The smart set have 30
little refining influence on society.
They may be common, even vulgar,
it is not necessary even for them
to speak dramatically; if they give real
jewels with their cotillon toys, and have a
perfect artist at the head of their kitchens,
they can become ''sna,t," and receive roy
atty as much and as often as they please.
The horrible word smart has been invented
on puT pose to express this: smartness has
been borrowed from the vocabulary of the
kitchenmalds to express something wbic
is at the top OF the fashion, without being
necessarily either well born or we'll bred.
Smart people may De both the latter, but it
is not necessary that they should be either.
They may be smart by mere force of chance,
impudence, charm, or the faculty of making
a royal bored one laugh.
II is, therefore. impossible for the smart
people to have much influence for good on
the culture and manners OF the society they
dominate A beau monde, really exclusive,
elegant, and Of high culture. not to be
bought by any amount Of mere riches or
display, would have great refining influ-
ence On manner and culture, and its NOR
oily, or lack Of it, would not matter much
Indeed, society cannot be an accurate judge
OF morality; the naughty clever people
know well how TO keep their pleasant sins
unseen; the candid, Warm-hearted people
always sin the sole sin which rarely Injuries
anybody-they get found out.
At risk of arousing the censure OF readers,
confess that | would leave to society a
very large liberty in the matter of its mo-
rality. or immortality, If it would only JUS
tify its existence by any originality, any
grace, any true light and loneliness. In
the face OF its foes lying grimly waiting for
1t, with explosives in their pockets. society
should justify its own existence Uy its own
beauty, delicacy and excellence of choice
and taste. After all. society does but
represent the temper Of the age in which it
exists, and tue faults of the society of our
time are the faults Of that time itself; they
are its snobbishness, its greed, its haste, its
slavish alteration of a royalty which is
wholly out of time aud keeping with it, and
of a wealth of which It asks neither the
origin nor the solidity, and which il is con-
tent only to borrow and bask in as pigs ia
mud.
1t is not luxury which is enervat-
ing, it is overeating. oversmoking and the
poisoned atmosphere Of crowded roomS In
England the heavy breakfast, the ponderous
luncheons the long tsdio-s dinners, not to
speak OF the afternoon teas and the liqueurs
and spirits tefore bedtime. ill up more than
half the wslking hours. stocking as 1t is
elegantly called, is the one JOY which never