The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-26

WORLD.

VONAUs
Mrs. Amelia Gere Mason discourses in
+be August Century of 1.-The Decadence of
Manners" Some of her. keenest shafts
are levelled at the girl Of the period.
1t seems a trifie unjust TO the clever
and well-bred American girl 70 dwell upon
a familiar type so much en- evidence as
40 overshadow all the others and pass
evervwhere as representative, but it is a
question of tendencies. This typical girl
Of the day puts on mannish airs with
rnannish clothes, spices her talk with
slang, not always of the choicest, losses
her pretty head in proud defiance as she
nuts down her parents. her elders, and
her superiors-indeed, she admits no su-
perors, though this scion of equality
does admit interiors and snubs them
without mercy-pronounces a final opin-
ion on subjects of which she does not
know even the alphabet, shows neither
respect for white hairs nor consideration
for favors which she claims as a right,
and calls all this swell" or smart"
and a proper expression of her fashion,
able, or questionable. independence.
The same spirit runs through the entire
social gamut. There is nothing more con-
tagious than bad manners; it is so easy
for the selfish instincts to come upper
most when the pressure of a law, written
or unwriSten, is removed. The insolence
of servants is sufficiently emphasized.
Even the shop girl waits upon you with
half-guised imrertinence, often imperti-
nence without any disguise, and replies
, TO your civil word with a lofty stare as
much as to say, "Since you are polite to
me you cannot be of much consequence"
The causes are not far 10 seek. A DO
tent one is the rush and hurry of life
in which everybody is intent upon doing
the most in the least possible time. There
is no leisure for small courtesies. 1t IS
a heterogeneous scramble for the loaVes
and fishes. in which the survival of the
fttest resolves itself into a survival of
the strongest. 1t is something akin to
brute force that gains the prize, whether
# be a seat in the car or a seat in
Congress. Indeed, we claim, as a part
Of our national glory, abe trait so well
expressed by the word push" It makes
little difference what one pushes so long
as 1t stands in the way. Men in the
garb of gentlemen do not scruple to
thrust aside delicate women who happen
TO be moving before them in the pro
cession. Well-dressed women run over
one another 1t is the same spirit ap-
piled to the minor morals as that which
prompts the Wall street magnate to walk
over his weaker rival, and the laboring
man who has organized in the name of
freedom and human brotherhood to crush
out of existence, if he can, his poorer
neighbors who have not-the spirit of in
stinctive, though sometimes unconscious.
selfshness, whether it be crudely clear or
hidden under some high-sounding name.
Nor is the fact without its significance
that women, who are natural arbiters of
manners rs well as conservators of NOR
ais, have been driven by necessity into
The hustling crowd. It is an alternative
between struggling for foothold in the
world or sinking; and success, nine times
out Of ten, is the triumph of aggression
This in itself is fatal to the. self-efface-
ment which is so strong an element of
good breeding, and tends toward radi-
cal change in the habits and traditions
of womanhood. which mast react more or
less upon society.
BY society woman" I do not mean the
type that first presents itself, the brilliant
compound of style, daring, and Paris
gowns. whole life begins and ends with
entertaining and being entertained who
puts the fashion of a hand-shake the por-
celain, and cut glass of the dinner-table,
and the cost of an equipage above the sim
pie graces and fine breeding which betray
the choice life of generations. or the in
born taste and nobility that ask nothing
from inheritance. I mean something that
compares with it as the rare old lace COM
pares with the machine-made imitation
as the rich and mellow tones of the Cathe-
dral window which the light of centu-
ries has tempered and seftened compare
with the crude and garish coloring of its
modern copy. There are society women
upon whom the mantle of the old-time lady
has fallen, through nature or heritage,
whose social gifts are the sum of many
gifts, the crown of many womanly vir-
tues. One finds them everywhere. women
who cherish the fine amenities, who are
gracious, intelligent. tactful kind, and &C
tive in all good works who understand the
art Of elegant living, as we'll as the in
trinsic value of things, and like to open
their hospitahle homes for the pleasure OF
their friends. 1t is such as these who
represent the finest flower of our woman
hood and help to preserve the traditions of
gentle manners, which are in the way of
being trampled out in the mad march of
something we call progress. 1t is for these
20 ostracize vulgarty, TO put up the deli
cafe DdITIeTS WHICH nave Deen permitted
10 be let down between the pleasant COM
radeship of men and women and the loud
note of familiarity, to temper the sordld
spirit of commercialism with the refine
ments of that higher class of intellect
which sees things not only as they are,
but as they ought to be.
Live for Something
Live for something have purpose,
And that purpose keep in view;
Drifting like a helmless vessel
Thou can't ne'er to life be true
Half the wrecks that strew life's ocean,
If some star had been their guide,
Might have now been riding safely,
But they drifted with the tide.
Live for something, and live earnest,
Though the work may humble be,
BY the world of men unnotced,
Known alone to God and thee.
Every act has priceless value
To the architect of fate;
'9ts the spirit of thy doing
That alone will make it great.
Live for something-God and angels
Are thy watchers in the strife.
And above the smoke and conflict
Cleans the victors crown of life.
Live for something; Gcd has given
Freely of his stores divine;