Middletown transcript., 1897-10-02
Contributed
coNyENTIoNALIsM. n.

u
There is a society and a society. There
| is that undefined something, more like a
machine than an aggregate of human sens
Utilities, which is set going in a season. OF
at watering place, or permanently selects
itself for certain social manifestations"
When this society has gotten hold upon
a community or place, as it always gets
upon every small town. it Is quite possible
aud more than probable that the members,
having attained their ends in all possible
culture and refinement in manner, educat-
ed in the art of intellectual and luxurious
living, to lose, as result OF this cultivation,
all individuality and Independence not only
in actions and opinions but in all personal
ideas and impulses. What a sacrificed
They sacrifice these by conforming to all
| the usages and conventionalisms to such a
great extent as TO reduce themselves COM
| pletely to the common place. They decide
no question in debate, they leave the de :
cision to the social standard. 1t is the
social standard which pronounces an opin-
ion upon every person, subject or discussion
while they lose all individual taste, and
judgment and appreciation and bow to the
decree of fashion.
Lacking all freedom and charm of in
dividuality and originality, so, fascinating
and so charming, allowing no original flow
of conversation, animated by no emotions
or impulses they are reduced to the unin-
teresting mould of conventionality.
What thoroughly educated man or wom-
an enjoys conversing with a person who
converses by will mechanically making the
most proper answer to the most simple but
al a1x
obliterated by the desire to do the correct
thing, their sole existence seeming to consist
in following the stiff rules of etiquette laid
down by the established leaders of society?
Young people, especially boys, whose
minds are as susceptible to passing impress
sions as clay to the sculptor's hands, who if
allowed to form and express their opinions
are the ones when grown, having stored
their minds with bright. active and original
thoughts, now self confident enthus-
iastic man, active and interested, speaks
and shows his own convictions and becomes
a Plato, a Shakespeare, a franklin" while
others who having been placed under So
ciety's control, have not been able to broaden
their minds by expressing and th linking
original thoughts, have quietly gone trem-
bling along and have died mere cyphers-
unheard of.
Our girls, launched into society, become
moulded into the same forms, express the
same ideas, thoughts and opinions, become
hypocritical and unsympathetic mere
skeletons of the vivacious type of woman
hood" so interesting to all with whom they
meet.
This society merely dictates the mode of
dress and the certain needful forms and
precedents and does not even permit its
members to their inner lives and personali-
ties nor to regulate their self reliance
Here are the enemies of our young
folks of to-day, enemies of the cut and |
dried conventional standard of which thou
sands are yearly becoming members.
What q forcible contrast is presented by
the girl who surrounded by an atmosphere !
of charming personality, enthusiasm, over |
flowing with sparkling wit and repartee, of |
which she is mistress, contrasted with the |
society girl who is at |
eighteen what she will be at sixty, proper to |
a degree. without piquancy, sincerity, ami
nation. effecting every action and crushing |
out all sympathy from the every day |
features of life.
The latter, moulded as a model for So
ciety's sculptors and artits is ever fearful |
lest she should deviate from the precise de-
CreeS of society when she would be misun. |
derstood and criticised. But is that a dis |
grace2
Pythagoras, Galileo, Newton, all great |
men have some time In their lives been mis-
understood. "To be great is to be misun- |
derstood."
Society has its limits, however, as all /
possible efforts in cultivation fail to make
The rose as large as the sunfower and can
not destroy the delicate perfume and proud
splendor of this beloved beauty, so may
The buds of coming society hear such frag-
rant perfumes into their surrounding lives,
excite such exquisite interest. retain their
Vivaeity and fragrance through the test of
so that all those coming !
in contact with them will recognize their
noble qualities and will say of each: Age
,annot wither her, Nor custom stale her in
Unite Variety