The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-07-01
RECOLLECTIONS OF LORD CHIEF
JUSTICE COLERIDGE.
Second Paper.1

minutes of the time named the guests were
assembled, with the exception Of the Lord
High Chancellor, who did not arrive until
the others were seated. He explained that
he was kept at the House of Lords, where
there was a protracted discussion of the
free education bill, the Duke of Argyll hold
ing the floor till late hour Among 9TH
ers present there we're Mr. Russell. whose
life Of Gladstone had just been published
Mr.. Harrison. "A brother of Frederic Harri-
son; Mrs. Eleanor Woodehouse daughter OF
Matthew Arnold, whose husband is a son
of Earl Kimberly, formerly Irish secretary
in the Gladstone Ministry and now men,
Der of Lord Rosebery's Cabinet: Mrs. Bing-
ham. wife Of Mr.. Bingham Q. c., who
stands with Sir Charles Russell in the
front rank of England's great lawyers;
Lady Denison, Miss Barring Lawford, sister
OF Lady Coleridge, and others whose names
l do not recall. Ii might go without say
inc that a dinner party of English ladies
and gentlemen. made up by Lady and Lord
Coleridge, would present a fair specimen Of
the intellectual aristocracy opposed to
the horse-racing, prize-fghting and baccarat
nobility. who have inherited social station
instead of winning it, Shopenauer was in
the habit of dining at a cafe which
much frequented by some scions of the
English nobility 1t was noticed that when
ever the philosopher of pessimsm took his
seat he placed a guinea on the corner of
the table. After several days this conduct
excited curiosity. and some one was bold
enough TO ask Shopenauer what it meant
"Why," said he, Il have made wager with
myself-that whenever l hear those young
Englishmen over there talk on any subject
but dogs. horses and women, I intend to
give that guinea to some charitable institu-
ton. From what 1 have seen and heard,
however I expect to keep the guinea a
long while"
Well. Lady Coleridges company did not
indulge in that sort of tall Here let me
mention a bit of Philistnism which cropped
out in a letter or an interview attributed
to Richard Harding Davis, which appeared
in an American newspaper Mr.. Davis, ac-
cording to the publication alluded to, was
shocked at what he regarded as the ILL
breeding of a London host or hostess at
whose house he was an invited guest. He
doubtless expected to have "A jolly ELUSIVE
Misunderstanding and back-sapping reception,
something of the plutocratic-ch aerful-vul-
garity style of New York. He was amazed,
after threading his way through the lines
of ushers into the dining ROOM to discover
that he was left alone TO make his way as
best he could in a strange company without
formal introduction to the guests So
he made a wall flower of himself. and
wrote himself down an ass i'm an ill
natured criticism of what is certainly one
of the greatest charms of wel-bred So
eiety. Persons invited to- such company
are vouched for by the host and are ex-
nfnI
one another without a preliminary pump
handle or the more ridiculous, elevated.
stiff-elbowed Misunderstanding which comes
West with the so-called finished. but really
half-baked dudes and maidens who leave
the Eastern schools and cross the Allie
ghenies in midsummer. No. that is not
the way to do il. You address the lady
or gentleman who happens TO be next to
you at the table or in the drawing room
with the freedom of an acquaintance. II
the conversation which ensues is agreeable
the chance meeting may lead to familiar
interchange of views, and may possibly
ripen into lasting friendship This is
UNNECESSARILY better than the awkward
formality which debars conversation among
guests who have not been introduced"
All OF which goes TO show that with our
many millonaires. our population of sixty
five millions. our boundless resources, our
wide-spreading domain, our glorious polit-
zeal institutions-not forgetting the pres
ent United States Senate, nor the fact
stated by Mr.. Lowell that we are the
most thoroughly common schooled and the
least cultivated people in the civilized
world notwithstanding all this we may
possibly learn from others something of the
social amenities and equities and some OF
these SMALL sweet courtesies of life which
are so essential TO right living Our ami
able and candid critic. Mr.. Matthew Ar
mold, gives us great praise Our institu-
tons fit us like well-made suit of clothes
our women are charming. We have sue
cessfully solved the political problem. we
have solved the social problem also and
have established the principle of equity,
but he regrets to say that we have not
solved the human problem is a
lack of urbanty in the newspaper styie
of writing, a tendency to the penny-dread-
full manner, the fiippant funny man is too
much in evidence. there is something
bordering on indelicacy in the way in
which leading papers discuss tn.
private and family affairs of public men.
and when our editors tell us that all this
is because our people like it and will have
ii so. ii is an open confession that this
criticism of Mr.. Arnold's is just. Isn't il
quite likely that our blood kin of the
tight little island have not been fooling
away their time for thousand years, and
that they really know how to do some
things quite as we'll as ourselves? I hope
the readers of what 1 here set down will
not hurl at me that awful anathema
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
guest at Lord Coeridge's recalled the re-
mark attributed to Lord Coleridge when
Mr.. Arnold was lecturing in America that
Mr.. Arnold was the greatest living English
man. 1 mentioned il to him, and he said
he had not used the word greatest" but
had called Mr.. Arnold the most ''dfstn-
guished living Englshman, in the sense
of being unique and set apart from his
countrymen by such marked peculiarities
of style in prose and poetry, by his great
scholarship. his broad sympathies and his
unerring and grateful appreciation of what
was best in literature. ancient and mod
ern. Mr.. Arnold and Lord Coeridge, the
one from Rugby and the other from Elton,
were feilowstudents at Balliol College, OK
ford. Mr.. Justice Colerdge. Lord Coleridge's
father. was one of the most intimate
friends of Dr. Arnold. OF Rugby, a fact
which is we'll attested by the correspond
DIR. Arnold. This bond of friendship was