The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-24
4 HYSTERICAL AGE,

HYSTERICAL AGE,
It has been much the fashion for the
last few years to speak of this as a
"decadent" age. Decadent is a good,
mouth-fiIling word, sufficiently ambigu-
Gus or indeterminate III its content to
please those who, feeling that the times
are somehow out of joint, lack the
knowledge, the patience and the philo-
sophie insight to inquire into causes
and remedies. They can make an eff
fective show of superior judgment by
referring you to Nordau, whom not one
in a score has ever read, telling you
that the age and the race are "degen-
crate" and wailfully admitting that
the republic is decadent both in public
and private life. All there is left for
US, they then admit, is to slip swiftly
down the incline to decay and nothing
ness, that out of the ruins there may
possibly spring a new and better race;
if perchance the day has not come to
humankind for utter oblivion, eXtinc-
ton and the silences of the cold phases
of the moon.
To the observer who has kept his
nationality and preserved the whole
some way Of looking at life and its
problems, the disease appears to be,
if not less dangerous, far less deeply
seated. He does not believe that this
is a decadent age, because he does not
- believe in decadence If the story of
the earth and of the inner life of man
teaches him anything, it tells the story
Of progress; of advancement, Infinitely
slow and painful and discouraging, but
never totally checked or reversed; of
evolution moral and spiritual, as well
as physicaI of a reaching toward the
goal that none have seen or will see
until the old quest for the Holy Grail
has come to its successful end. To him
whose view is not narrowed to the
individual, to the nation, or the single
issue, but broadens to the centuries as
they run, the unceasing and inerrant
law is manifest. To talk to him of de
cadence" in the broad sense of the
to utter a contradiction in terms. AS
well talk of a system of science in
which the primary cOlors unite to pre-
duce darkness instead of white light,
as of a world in which the laws whose
ceaseless operation he not only wit
nesses but feels should bring mankind
to lean backward to the brute"
The chara cteristc Of the age is
rather hysteria than decay. Of what it
may be, if not corrected, the premon-
itory symptom. we should not care to
predict. But no chronicler of facts and
tendencies can perform his duty, if he
has not pointed out and decried the
hystericaI effervescences of the passing
hour, particularly in the domain of
morals. They do but skim the surface,
we believe, but they are sufficiently
general and sufficiently disgusting to
demand return to sanity, and cru
SADIE against hypocrisy, even if it
should have to carry with it a larger
liberation of the robust vices that have
been succeeded by the sentimental and
Il,
as far as public and private morality
are concerned, that is as far as they
are dealt with by public opinion and
not as they affect the Individual life,
our modern society seems to be scarcely
above the caste of ward in some in
stitution for the treatment of neurotics
Let us look at few recent and strik-
ing illustrations of this social hystera
a short time ago a bachelor dinner
was given at the sw&lest restaurant in
New York city. Arrangements were
made to have lot Of professional dan
cling girls give some exhibitions Of ORR
entail performances after the dinner. IN
formation was conveyed to the police.
the officers broke in and put an end
to the display, and the whole affair was
afterward brought into the police court.
Now, the thing in itself was shocking
enough; and if it had brought out q
genuine condemnation or affected the
standard of morals or manners. the eff
feet might have been wholesome But
the testimony showed that the dances
in question were exactly the same as
are given publicly in vaudeville in diff
ferent public halls in the city without
interference. The details Of the evil
dence We're published In most of the
newspapers, and were far more de-
structive Of purity and corrupting than
the performance before a Job lot OF
eallow youths could have been. And
after the matter had blown over. one
CT the principal places of amusement
iEotleg city put mimic representation
ofgff}a famous dinner on the boards and
kept it there for some time without in
erz2a 3ss3sk1s