Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-03-19
Iv.-THE sHAMs OF SOCIETY.

Ats-4x1G 011fAN1O vi
(Copyright.)
wonder what was the name OF the
famous cynic who gave the eleventh
commandment, Thou shalt not be
found out" / wish he was known, for
after all, the eleventh commandment
is the one which is the most severely
punished if transgressed. You can
break the other ten with impunlty pro-
viding the eleventh is kept. Thou
shalt not be found out" II you value
your position in this world, II you
think Of your character, If you wish
your friends to respect you, Tor
Heavens sake do not transgress this
command. 1 think to transgress that
commandment and to be poor are the
two worst crimes that one can commit.
l do not know which is the worst-the
poverty or being found out. For my
self think il is being found out. You
see. the world takes us for what we
appear to be, and not as we really are.
It is q lamentable fact. blu 1t is the
truth; and it is owing to this that pre-
tence is rampant in our midst. Would
that we had another Thackeray to rush
into the fray and wage war on
"Shams." He nobly tried to scotch
the hypocrisies of life, and partly sue
ceeded, but since his death, "Shams'
have assumed gigantic proportions.
Every day the monster seems to get
bigger, and all our lives and actions
become more and more impregnated
with this vice. To my mind it is dis
tinctly comical to note the atmosphere
of insufferable p~retence in which we
live. We are never happy unless we
are appearing what we are not, and
aping the nner and the habits of
our betters. What is right and proper
for people with 10000 a year is
most absurd for folks living on $3.50 a
year. l will give you an instance OF
what. l mean. Lady de Midas de Tom
kins has an enormous circle of friends
as
THE WIFE OF A MILLIONAIRE,
philanthropist, and member OF Parlla-
ment is sure to have. She entertalns a
great deal, and is a well-known figure
at every fashionable function, and an
inveterate frst-nighter. She reserves
one evening a week, or a fortnight. or
a month, to receive her friends. So her
friends and acquaintance know eX-
actly when they shall find her at her
palatial mansion and her handsome
rooms are crowded with people more
or less well known. That is all right
and proper. l have nothing to say
about it, but Mrs. Ponsonby de Clerk,
whose husband is something in the
City, and earns ga or G5 a week, and
who has a tiny little cheap villa in one
of the suburbs, she also feels that she
must go in for an at home day on her
cards. Mrs. Ponsonby de Clerk at
home, first Wednesday in every month"
And there she sits in her cheap little
drawing-room with it's trumpery orna-
ments, and the covers off her chairs,
and the two-penny farthing tea-service
placed on the table, and her best gown
on waiting for company, which per-
haps comes and perhaps does not. She
dispenses weak tea and thin bread and
butter, and mixed biscuits, and plumes
herself on her gentility. The little
maid of all work is dressed for the
occasion. Her cotton dress is dis
carded, and her ordinary cap disappears
to the regions Of her trunk. She acts
the earlour-maid, in black, and she has
a white apron, and her cap is very
white with long strings, and Mrs. De
Clerk calls her Jenkins" instead of
MARIA" and is very polite to her. l
do not say that the woman is not per-
fectly right, and that her gentility is
not most c~ommendable, but this
PRETENCE IS BANISHING HOSPI-
TALITY
and true friendship. How much better
1t would be for people in the lower
classes to Danish all this absurd pre-
tence. How nice it would be to be able
to look in at a friends house of an
evening and see the hostess sewing and
paterfamilias smoking his pipe, and
the girls and boys of the family per-
forming their various duties, and
where you could sit and have a chat
and feel really at home, and instead of
tea in the d~rawing-room n could
have a supper of bread and cheese, and
a glass of thin ale, and the young peo-
pie could laugh and chat, and dad
could rest his tired feet in his carpet
slippers, and puff away at his pipe and
everyone enjoy themselves and be nat
ural. But does anyone ever see any
one, ever see anything, natural in
these fin de sicle days. 1 trow not.
Surprising any n came in, mother
would put away her work as if she was
doing something to be ashamed of.
Dad would rush upstairs and put on
his Track oOat and nncoca hic triad