The age-herald., 1898-01-02
TECHNICS FROM
 CURRENT. TOPICS.

With all ChareSton's exclusiveness. with all its determination not to be socially written up, 1t has received more attention | in an. unpleasant, undesirable way during the past week than any other city in the country Every community has it's es- pecial idiosincracies but to the onlooksr, perhaps Charleston has a larger share than any other well-brod town in the union. It has it's quota of intelligent cul- tivated, weliborn people, its share of en- terprising, honorable, successful business men, and, in every section of the south can be found many of the most charming, admirable, well-nannered men and women who claim the quaint old city-by-the-sea. as the place of their nativity. Charleston stands according to the most authentic statistics, at the top of southern business | progress, but, with all these things to her | credit she is wofully behind the times in many respects.
 A proper consideration of caste is com
 mendable and when rightly directed, tends to the elevation of the human race, but the miserable, snobby narrowness of certain Char,estonians who have inherited nothing from honorable ancestry, cx- cept a Imaginable satisfaction in the remote | past, IeSdIuiesS Ol liie pat thcy | are playing in the immediate present, ex- | cites only the natural ridicule of the best | born and bred people of every section. | If men and women can claim the purest,
 noblest blood in the land it is not neces- sary to be eternally Haunting it in the | faces of a community. If they are worthy | descendants of noble race, their lives, | their appearance and conduct will speak for them. They do not need any placard- | ing.
 | An assumption of superiority in any way | is the surest indication of inferiority and l snobbshness No amount of good blue
 blood in the past will atone for a lack of | good manners and good breeding in the l present. It is absurd to talk of "aristoc- racy'' and then to be guilty of the bad
 manners of the rankest plebian.
 In regard to the recent unfortunate oc- 1 currence at the cadet hop at Charleston | when a beautiful, well-conducted young
 actress, Miss Crane, was curtly asked to | retire from the hall by few ill-bred | sncbs, the News and Courier of that city | takes a proper stand and deplores the | fact that any woman, claiming to be | spectacle, could have been guilty of such | unparionable rudeness to a talented young | girl who was invited to attend the hop. | Miss Crane, it appears, received the same | kind of invitation extended to | many of the girls present Gan invitation | from her escorD and her conduct at the | entertainment was lady-like and correct. | Several of the chaperones have printed | cards in the News and Courier all re- | gretting the unfortunate happening and l declining to be in any wise responsible for | the lack of hospitality and the rudeness | of a certain Mrs. Lewis, a chaperon, who | seems to have been the head and front | of the offending.
 | Charleston exchanges claim that several | actresses of ability and character are en- | tertained by the most exclusive social 1 leaders of that city, when they visit Char | Ieston in their professional rounds, so the | fact that Miss Crane actress offers
 no excuse for the rudeness of few | ciety people at the cadets hop. If the
 matter is thoroughly sifted, there seems | to be every reason to believe it will be, by | influential Charlestonians, no doubt 1t will l be discovered that those persons who most | strenuously objected to Miss Cranes ap-
 pearance at the hop were themselves com | paratively recent additions to the select | C1TCltS Ol SHdTleSlOI. DOuplieSS they
 have hitherto foraged on the suburbs of
 society. and have only lately climbed over | with the energy of desperation and snob-
 bishness. into the precincts usually re-
 served for well-bred. well-mannered hu-
 manity.
 Thomas Nelson Page remarked many
 years ago in commenting upon his ignorant
 and callow youth. That he had been so | hemmed in by the narrowness and bigotry | of certain classes of Virginians that he was
 really twenty-one years of age before he | discovered that a man could be gentle
 man and not an Episcopalian." With the l expansion of his intellect and a thorough 1 airing in other sections be learned how | absolutely absurd and offensive the beliefs of his youth had been; how much there | was to be learned outside, and how idiotic l the preiudices of a shut-in people can
 make even an intelligent man until he ex-
 plores other religions.
 Some Charleston people seem to persist in
 remaining narrow and limited, while the great world stands by convulsed with ] amusement at their provincialsm. These few inferior representatives of noble peo. pie forget, surrounded as they are by q l Chinese wall of prejudice and bigotry, how ! Merciful Providence has interfered in l their behalf and endeavored to broaden l their minds and hearts, He has sent to the beautiful old city pestilence, lombard
 ments and confagrations hoping to- send
 some of them into the outside world for | a breath of fresh air. But when the sick | ness passed, when the guns were hushed | and the fires were put out, these faithful l sons and daughters rushed back into Charleston and closed >the gates behind them and persuaded themselves that Gods elect dwelt there. But in a night came the memorable earthquake, and To, the Merci- | full Ruler of men shook out into broader. l fresher fields some of the noblest men and
 women upon whom the sun ever shone. l There are no grander representatives on | the face of the globe than those Carolinians
 and virginians after they have been well aired in other precincts. and their limita- I tions, born of peculiar environments, have l I.x k1.1 %pf tldc a