The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-03-30
ideas tor dMonaen.

2E-TT< 49, f~O - af<4
over and over by people who thdnk it
sounds rather nice. but who really do
not know what they are talking about.
says i writer in the Boston Herald.
TO belong to the sniar set one must
have wealth or the lofty position that
well-ndgh can dispense with 1T; one
must. again, possess both good looks and
brains, a ready wit and much social
knowledge. which you know rs quite a
different sort of learning from the acad-
emic knowledge of books; one must know
men and cities, the world at large and
the affairs of the day, one must dine we'll
and dress better-in fact, have a super
aority of charms and wisdom above the
ordinary middle race of mankind. All this
sand more IL required to gain a footing
Atn the exacting, brilliant, bustling world
OF the smart set"
A smart man. present day meaning.
must belong to the best set, be popular
with men as well as with women. and If
NO an aM-round sportsman must be able
to hold his wi with horse and gun. He
must belong to the best ciubs and be a
persona grata In his profession, as well
as in society both of town and country.
A smart women" should be pretty,
not necessarily a classic beauty. but of
q winning prettiness. fascinating, en-
PERTAINING and amusing. clever. fault
aessly dressed, bright. CHEEKY (no
fears), ready to share any fun that is
on foot. distinctly sin tire SWIM charm
ing, adaptable, lass, but not least, a
queen In the art Of society small talk.
1t sounds formidable, doesn't it? And
It goes to prove how much a man or
q women has to go through to keep
himself or herself really smart. It's no
easy task, I assure. you, and it makes
9 great many good and gracious people
who. perhaps, wou not have been so
agreeable and kind had they belonged to
any other class but the arduous highest.
Much has been said and more written
against this particular clique of society,
Dut these attacks are often the result of
an outsiders ignorance of facts, and not
che sermons sometimes prompted by a
feeling which the old proverb has taught
us to Jersey call sour grapes"
Smart society of the day has certain
" a multitude of good points, which
are too ofter allowed to be overshad-
"a tAO vi tliG PCOgdc ny OlQ
small faults which are invariably mag
nafed. The march of time and the spread
of education have affected the aristo-
cratic wealthy classes as wei as the mid
die work-a-day world. ne are not the
heirs of the g e for nothing, and in the
present day the muchzdkScussed smart
set reads and thinks and acts with mar
Vicious understanding. They sympathize
with the poor, are keenly. IN touch with
them, and are frequently their friends.
tine college. settlements as examples in
point, which the SMART have founded.
and through which they have done more
good and updfted more degraded souls
than any dozen other charities.
"
The dandies of the regency and the
Idle. powdered and patched dolls of the
Vatican period are people of the past,
and have given place to men who, gay
beaux though they be at the opera or
ball, yet earnestly study the wants and
wishes of the workers who lave not been
as well treated by fortune as they, CIV
ing time and thought to social questions,
and frequently penetrating the poor quar-
tiers to learn the life and death of pow
N<OJ AAoy 6&fC lAC4A alQ IL Iu6
most intelligent manner possible and
where it is most needed.
The smart woman of today, frivolous.
Tightly, hopelessly e-xtravagant though
she is called, is, at the same time, won
derfuliy thoughtful for others, truly char
table and Industrious.
Few people know how much real good
IS done by such worldly women as Mrs.
Q. H 2. Belmont, Mrs. Ogden Mills, Mrs.
William c. Whitney and Mrs. Aston.
They make no parade Of their good
works, and often their deeds are done
ANONYMOUSLY, allowing the world to go
on calling them heart1ess and extrava-
CANT. Through them and hundreds of
other such. children are educated, Illness
IS alleviated and vice is suppressed, and
so smart society means volumes more
than the careless observer first suspects,
and 1t is no easy task to be really smart.
There is nothing more interesting In all
the field of philanthropic work than the
movements toward what so many econ
omic theorists consider the only state
wherein real prosperity and happiness
may be expected by the human race,
namely, the occupation of a large per-
centage of the population in tilling the
soil Whether or moi we agree in the ex-
treme view of this large number of theor-
lists. we all can but see the danger of the
rapidly increasing rate of migration from
country to city, since 1t threatens the
production Of the raw Materials with
out which the factory towns cannot SUBJ
sist. Now many raw materials are pro-
duced at great pressure in the old coun-
tries, and that is beginning to be true
Of this country, while pauperism and
crime Increase daily. The .Pingree PLAN
of giving plots of land near cities to the
unemployed for the raising of vegetable
supplies has been tried in this city with
gratifying results. SO that any one de-
sirous to do 50 may study it near at hand;
the wider and more radical plan of va
cant land colonies has been tried by the
Cooper Union Labor Bureau of New
York City, and the superintendent, J.
n. k5elgaard, spoke lately on the sub
ject before the League for Political Ed
ucation, a woman's league of that city.
Mr.. Kjelgaard began by saying that the
tide of migration toward cities should be
checked and turned back to the free.
wholesome life OF the country. The re-
mark. however, that gives the key to the
whole possibility Of the situation is this:
Opportunity hould be given to these