The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-04
SOCIAL CHANGES '
In SIXTY YEARS
Interesting Description OF the Manners
Of the English Ia 1887.
CONTRAST WITH CUSTOMS OF TODAY
The Fashion of Walking Arm-in-Arm.
IL Was Not Considered Polite TO
Mentioned Your Poverty or Your
Digestion Champagne in Homoeo.
pathic Doses--No smoking in the
streets Until After the Crimean
war.-A Comparison OF Morals.


Victoria's long reign there are few
which equal in point of interest the
description by Sir Algernon West in
the Nineteenth century of the changes
which have taken place in the social
cumstoms of the English people. Sir
Algernon says in part:
Early in the reign. people at large
country house parties used to go into
breakfast arm-in-arm, and no lady
ever walked with her husband except
bras sous bras. Friends always walked
arm arm, and the country neighbor
always made his entry into party
arm-i arm with his wife and daugh-
ter. Now the fashion has disappeared,
except at dinner, and there has sprung
up an odious habit of indscriminate
handshaking morning and evening, in
season and ont of season, and another
fashion, worthy of a table d'hote, of as
signing to each guest the place where
he is to sit at dinner. Lady Granville
once remarked that, in her younger
days, nobody in polite society ever men,
toned their poverty or their digestion,
and now they had become the principal
topics of conversation; and If society
was then vigilant in ignoring all allu-
row gone far in the contrary direction.
| Everybody quotes the prices of stocks
| and shares, and l have lived to see the
| day when youthful scion of a noble
and distinguished house produced from
lis pocket at dinner a sample bundle of
silks to show how cheaply they could
| be bought at his establishment. So
| ciety was so small lhat Lady Palmer
ton used to write in her own hand all
| invitations to her parties. Great
| changes in dinners occurred during the
| forties. Formerly a large turbot with
| red festoons of lobster was an inevita-
| BILE dish at a London dinner party; a
saddle of mutton at the head of S1e
table. which was carved by the host;
and a couple of chickens with white
sauce and tongue in the middle, was a
necessity, and led to various conven-
| tional compliments as to whether the
| hostess or her neighbor should carve
them Sir David Dundas used to tell
| of chicken being launched on his lap,
and the lady with a sweet smile saying:
Would you kindly give me back that
chicken?" With six side dishes and
two bottles of champagne in silver
coolers the table was complete. The
| champagne was only handed round af-
ter the second course, and was drunk
! in homeopathic doses out of small
tubes of glass which contained little
| but froth.
SMOKING.
Smoking existed from the time Of
| Sir Walter Raleigh, but only on suf-
| ferance, and many were the evenings
in winter when the smoking brigade
| ell ~ m a
in the harness room; or, when there
were less bigoted hosts, we were al
lowed to remain in the servants hall.
No gentleman ever smoked in the
streets till after the Crimean peace,
and ladies never sullied their lips with
tobacco or even allowed men to smoke
in their presence. 1t was not till the
year As that a smoking room was first
established in the Holy of Holes, IS
Dandydom, Whites club, and it was in
1881 before smoking was allowed below
the attics in Brooks. Thanks to the
| introduction by the Prince of Wales of
smoking after dinner, wine drinking
is now over. Mr.. Gladstone recollects
that on one occasion when a host put
to a bishop who was dining with him
the ordinary formula, viii your lordship
have any more wine? the bishop re-
piled in a solemn voice, Thank you,
not till we have drunk what we have
before us. When l first entered the
| admiralty as a boy, about every three
weeks the chief clerk used to come into
the room where ] sat, with 'jat Vt
frill' and entirely dressed for the even
ing, End say, Mr. Jesse, l shall not be
here tomorrow, for / am going to dine
out tonight And this was not meant
| as a joke, but was considered quite a
natural thing. / once asked Mr..
Charles Villers how he compared the
morals of his early days with those of
| our time. He answered with a touch
| of cynicism that he supposed human
| nature was human nature at all times,
but one difference was manifest. In
his golden days, every young man,
even if he was busy, pretended to be
idle; now every young man, If he was
idle, pretended to be busy, and that
meant a good deal. The stricter Sab
batariansm of the early years of the
reign existed side by side with a la
mentable laXity, and perhaps the looser
morals of those times We're a reaction
against the too Puritanical restraints
Of the dreary Sundays. At regimental
messes coarse acts and coarse Ian
guage We're common, and at private
dinner tables the departure of the la
dies from the room was the signal for
every sort of loose and indecent con-
versation, That is rarely so now.
LESS FORMALITY.
zone of the most remarkable changes
Of manners has been that familiarities
have taken the place of formalities. In
my early days few elderly ladies ad-
dressed their husbands by their Christ
ian names in public. / never heard my
mother call my father by his Christian
name. l recollect that Lady ---'s
fame was imperled because, after some
great mans death letter from her tC
him was discovered beginning with his
Christian name. Letters between
friends often began My dear Sir" and
many boys in my time addressed theii
fathers always as Sir" A friend Of
mine, Henry Greville, said he remem'
bered his mother, Lady Charlotte, an6
her brother,th Duke of Portland. meet
ing in the morning at Wellbeck, and
his saying, How is your ladyship, this
morning" and her replying with all sol
emnity, I am quite well, 1 am Obliged
to your Grace All shopkeepers are
now young gentlemen and young la.
dies The Duchess OF Somerset, OF
making inquiry about something sh,
had purchased at Swan & Edgar's, wal
asked IL she had been served by {
young gentleman with fair hair. No,
she said meditatively, L think il wal
head
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