The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-23
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF TO-DAY.
Compared with That of the Early
Part of This Century.

Part OF This century.
Editor Morning News: Mrs. Howe's
view of modern social life and your state
ment that the true basis of good manners
is better understood now than ever before,
gives matter for reflection TO any one who
has had any opportunity of observing the
social life of either Europe or America
for any length of time. The morals of
the world and its general well being are
undoubtedly in all the material things
much improved. In vague. altruistic feel
ing, in catholic sympathy and religious
federation, we can easily be shown to be
as much the superiors of our ancestors
as in bone and Drawn and muscle. But
when II comes to manners, per Sc, your
true basis" reminds one of the man who
was very pous but did not intend to allow
religion 10 interfere with his daily life"
Good manners are becoming increasingly
scarce at home and abroad and are no
ticeable chiefly for their general decay
Without attempting to make a case for
the stiled relations of the seventeenth and
eighteenth and earlier centuries between
parent and child, master and servant, host
and guest native and stranger rich and
poor, is il so clear to anybody who re-
members the fine flower of the gentle
manhood and the perfume of the woman
hood of the early part of the nineteenth
century that the world Is the gamer by
the manners of the day taken at
large and not as shown by this or that
person in whom tradition careful breeding
natural refinement, perfect Christian feel
ing have produced that result which
throughout the world is recognized as a
polished gentleman, high-bred thorough
lady. The child of 1900 in sths coun-
ffxr ,l,s.ff al k.au "a
kissed the hand of its grandparents daily,
asked after their health. never spoke Of
the Bible, the Church, save with reVer-
ence, treated the clergy and all supe-
riors in age or rank with respect was
submissive to parents, tutors masters and
pastors. We all known the child of to-
day How difficult IL Is for the elder gen
GRAFTON to accommodate itself to a grand
child who says, Hello, grandma that
yOu?" and sits still in the most comfor-
table chair in the room when she appears
in the morning-for the minister to hear
Miss Wiseacre (aged 1) call the Bishop
IAN old bore" and his sermon one that
she couldn't stand" the day previous
so she "came home and went out on her
wheel" and 10 meet a group of boy-par-
ishioners who are much too absorbed In
mumble-peg to salute him at all or do
more than drag at their caps reluctantly
or touch them like grooms, instead of lift
ing them courteously, like little gentle
men
Old gentlemen there are still left us, who
still uncover when a lady stops on the
street to speak to them and do not cover
till she passes, who unglove before shak-
ing her hand, who throw away their CT
gars at her approach, who never sit while
a woman stands" Ito quote the Prince
ConsorO, in any public or private place.
who do a thousand things that the young
men Of our day regard as slightly lmbecIle
and utterly Anticipated even IL they Study
good form" diligently. The gentleman
who indorses his friends note without
looking to see what the amount may be.
is as the megatherium now. lie was
plentiful enough in ante-bellum days in
che South The club of gentlemen In which
a lady's name and reputation are not
discussed, is becoming as the dodo, even
On the South. The reverences, dignitios
decencies. courtesies of that period are
rapidly becoming ancient history, and as
a nation we are producing more OF every
thing than of gentlemen. The conditions
for producing such are Increasingly unfa-
vorable in this land Of the free-and easy
and It Is true of Europe, where we read
of nobemen whose manners and lives are
those Of stableboys aud card-sharpers and
roues, and countesses and duchesses who
but for their surroundings could not be told
from grisettes and bar-maids. The gentle
men whom some of us remember as mod
els of personal dignity. purity. gentleness.