The San Francisco call., 1897-06-20
SOME ANMADVERSONS ON THE PRINCIPLES OF POIITENES

Without having seen the late Ward Nc
Allister's absurd book. II would be safe to
say that it sounds a note of regret for
the disappearance of the manners of a
past generation. Those who deCry their
own times always begin by lamenIng the
worse manners of their contemporaries.
20 tempora o mores !' said the Latin
poet. Old times are changed, old man
ners gone. sang SCOTS List Minstrel
"AIezrour," said the Caliph of Bagdad,
clasping his nostrils and gracefully squirt
ing beteI- juice over mis- shoulder, as he sat
cro' s-legged on his musnud, playing chess
with his young Vizier, who had just eaten
OF a savory pilaff, ''Mezrour, thy father
was contented with asaietida--but onions
are unpardonable. FaughV
So, those in the forward files of fashion
have always been protesting the supe-
rioTlly of a bygone day, and in every age
ere to be found men in the van OF swell
dom who, regretting the past and recog-
zing the impossi bility OF recalling its
manners and customs, are fain to form
cults founded on their own perfections, as
shown in their mirrors and reflected in
the hattery and seTviIe imitation OF their
followers and disciples. These leaders of
fashion are wrapped up entirely in SEEM
ing; with ing they have no concern
whatever.
Eating your soup with your nose in
the plate is vulgar; it has the appearance
of being used TO hard work and. Of course,
an unsteady hand" This is not one OF
the late Bill Nye's jokes; nor was it ut
tered by Mark Twain or Frank Stockton,
but was said in sober earnest by the ex-
alted Lord Chesterfield. 1t appeared TO
him TO have been necessary to go into
minuta regarding the minor conduct Of
life, and after reading his book we are
forced TO the conclusion that Henry Es.
mond was the "baseIess fabric of a vision, ."
and that such a fine gentleman could
never have existed in the days OF the Duke
OF Marlborough.
Lord Chesterfield, however, unlike the
rest of the brotherhood of dandies, had
good excuse for The writing of his Let
ters," in the gross profigacy of the age in
which he lived. The tremendous reaction
against Puritanism that set in at the
restoration of Charles II swiftly reached
its fullest growth in the corrupt court of
that King, who himself surpassed any of
his subjects in his cynical disbelief in the
honesty of men or the purity of women.
The hie of the times that ended with the
Revolution and the final disappearance of
The house OF Stuart was incredibly aDom-
Unable, as We see it limited at IN the pages
of Evelyn and Pepys and unblushingly
portrayed in the unspeakably filthy plays
OF Wycherly and Congreve.
TO say of shame-wbat is II?
OF virtue-we miss it,
OF sln-we can but kiss it,
And it's no longer sin.
That was the sort of feeling that prevailed
among the aristocracy and gentry OF Eng
land in those days. Buffoonery, lewdness,
the language and manners of the stews
snd public jakes, permeated the very
court, and we may infer the nature of
what passed for social intercourse in those
days when such a man as Dean Swift,
himself notoriously course, felt impelled
to write his "Polite Conversation, which
might have been merely verbatim re-
port of what passed between the Lady
Smarts and Lord Sparkishes of the time.
The reveling in moral filth and ordure
finally reused the senslbilities of men
who, though lacking in morality them
selves and wholly given up to seeming.
yet possessed a sense of decency. Among
them was Lord Chesterfield, who revoited
at the notion of meeting men and women
at Whitehall whose speech and manners