The times., 1898-10-09
HATS AND MANNERS.
CiviIfty Is Said to Lower as the
Mercury Rises.
(From the New York Sum-

(From the New York Sum-
One of these days somebody with
mind for complicated problems will try
to discover the effect of such hot spells
as the last on social relations. They
must be damaging. In the mental strain
which comes to most persons during
these periods there are many niceties of
life that are wholly lost sight of. The
most amiable are likely to lose patience
after three days. The politest lose their
manners, however closely they may be
part of the man himself. Civisity goes
down as the mercury gose up, and hu-
midity puts the final end to 1t. 1t is
at this ebb of manners that the trouble
begins. Men are likely to be intolerant or
the little eccentricities of old friends to-
ward which in times of less intense
strain they are most indulgent, If they
notice them at all. Persons without the
claim of old friends are lucky not to be
treated with unforgivable gruffness, but
they have the privilege of being equally
gruff in turn, and they exercise it, In
that lies the only redeeming feature OF
the social accidents that happen in such
times. Every man can be quite as in
tolerant. exasperated, and rude as his
neighbor.
The investigation into the delicate queS-
ton of broken friendships. wounded feel
ings. and enmities created in these try
Ing seasons, should never attempt TO draw
conclusions that did not take into consid-
Grafton the different species that would
be active in creating all these results.
1t would never be safe for him to iden-
tify the case of a fat man who tried to
relieve his feelings through the cooling
qualities of a high ball or two with that
of the thin one, who would drink lemon
phosphate If he took anything at ALL 1t
will be necessary for him to free his mind
of some popular traditions to have it
clear for purely scientific research. The
first of these would be the reputed good
nature of the fat man. In the conditions
existing last week that tabled quality dis
appeared in nine cases out of ten before
his collar. Such result landed him fu-
rious at the breakfast table. Differenti-
ating the types, as any really scientific
method would, this fat man could not
properly be assigned TO the same division
occupied by the one who had yielded to
the misleading apparition of a sweating
glass filled with carbonic, ice. and little
whisky. The first one might offend his
best friend on the cable car that carried
him down to business. with the second
no member of his own family would be
safe if the ice water was monopolized at
the breakfast table. Any course that con-
fused the two would be obviously value
less in determining the rate at which mu-
tual unpopularity could be produced dur
ing a hot spell.
With the thin man similar differences
| are as necessary for any exact conclu-
| sions. The apparent differences in the
| types are more difficult to determine,
| principally from the fact that in neither
is the collar SO likely TO wilt-one symp-
| tom of disposition to grouchiness as OBJ
vious as an auctioneer's flag. The clean
! ly shaven thin man with the parched look
is the one that corresponds to the high
| ball species In the fat class. He will
never have the hopeless look of the red
| faced fat man as the perspration trickles
! down his face beneath the impotent hand
kerchief. But his amiability will be
stretched to the same thin thread. The
| high bah has many ways for many men,
and it can dry up as well as float
| through the hospitable pores. The fat
man suffering from its coalition with the
temperature may be led into hamboyant,
| loudly expressed rudeness. The thin one
| with his collar as if the temperature were
at zero Is ready for swift. quiet annihila-
ton. The telltale drops may not trickle
down his face. But murder Is in his eye.
In the destruction of the social economy
that a hot wave brings, it is this calm
looking thin man who does the deadliest
work among his family, friends. and ac-
| Quaintances. Yet the more harmless
heavyweight. ever with his fictitious re-
pute of good nature. is likely to have
| more friends left at the end of hot day
| than the man with the melting avoirdu-
pois. And the false impression that the
fat man gives Is largely a matter of the
way in which a high ball chooses to man.
ifest itself under depressing atmospheric
conditions. The really harmless one of
the group is the thin man who takes only
soft stuff Natural dispositions must not
be ignored in forming a judgment in such
cases. But if he isn't, the end of a hot
spell will find his list of friends intimate
and casual, less damaged than that
owned by any other type of the four
His family will in all probability be his
as thoroughly as ever
Probably no statistician would ever bt
willing to undertake the work that sucf
an investigation would demand Tht
variations in these four elementary type:
furnish some idea of the difficulty of tn,
whole work. What of the men who arr
neither thin nor fat? How about women
No high-ball complications would be en-
countered there. but the other variations
would be nearly too complex. The mer,
question of the differences between thost
that cared and those that didn't show;
the extent of that field. Then the ques
tion of professions could not be over
looked. To think of actors, drivers o
beer wagons, clerks in fur stores, anC
cooks is enough to indicate that any gen
timely scientific treatment of the question
would involve endless labor. But tn,
acute personal interest would make i
worth while for somebody to ascertain
just what are the effects of hot spell
social relations