The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-08-11
SMART" BUT ILL-BRED.

keeneSt shafts are leVeled at the girl
OF the period.
1t seems trife unjust to the clever
and well-bred American girl to dwell
upon familiar type so much en- EN-
dence as to overshadow all the others
and pass everywhere as representa-
tive, but it is a question of tenden-
cies. This typical girl of the days
puts on mannish airs and mannish
clothes, spices her talk with slang,
not always of the choicest, tosses her
pretty head in proud defiance as she
puts down her parents. her elders,
aud her superiors-indeed, she admits
no superiors, though this scion Of
equality does admit interiors and
snubs them without mercy = pro-
nounces a final opinion on subjects of
which she does not know even the al
phabet shows neither respect for
white hairs nor consideration for ia
vors which she claims as right, and
calls al this "swell' or Smart, "
and a proper expression of her fash
ionable or questionable indepen-
dence.
The same spirit runs through the
entire social gamut. There is moth
ing more contagious than bad man
ners it is so easy for the selfish in
stincts to come uppermost when the
pressure of a law written or unwrit-
ten is removed. The insolence of
servants is sufficiently emphasized.
Even the shop-girl waits upon you
with half disguised impertinence, Of
ten impertinence without any dis
guise, and replies to your civil word
with lofty stare, as much to say ::
"Since you are polite to me you can
not be of much consequence.
The causes are not far to seek.
A potent one is the rush and hurry of
life in which everybody is intent
upon doing the most in the least pos
sible time. There is no leisure for
small courtesies. 1t is a hetorogene-
Gus scramble for the loaves and fishes,
in which the survival of the fttest re-
solves itself into survival of the
strongest. 1t is something akin to
brute force that gains the prize,
whether it be a seat in the car or a
seat in Congress. Indeed, we claim,
as a part of our national glory, the
trait SO we'll expressed by the word
"push." 1t makes little difference
what one pushes so long as it stands
in the way. Men in the garb of gen
tlemen do not scruple to thrust aside
delicate women who happen to be
moving before them in the procession.
Well-dressed women run over one an
prom pTdisizfpsE 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 instructive,
though sometimes unconscious, self
ishness, whether it be crudely clear
or hidden under some high-sounding
name. Nor is the fact without its
significance that women who are nat
ural arbiters of manners as we'll as
conservators of morals, have been
driven by necessity into the hustling
crowd. 1t is an alternative between
struggling for foothold in the world
or sinking; and success, nine times
out of ten, is the triumph of aggres-
sion. This in itself is fatal to the
self-efacement which is SO strong an
element of good breeding, and tends
toward a radical change in the habits
and traditions of womanhood, which
much react more or less upon society.
WHAT SOCIETY WOMAN MEANS.
By society woman" do not mean
the type that first presents itself, the
brilliant compound of style, daring,
and Paris gowns, whose life begins
and ends with entertaining and being
entertained, who puts rhe fashion of
hand-shake, the porcelain and cut
glass of the dinner table, and the cost
Of an equipage above the simple
graces and fine breeding which be.
tray the choice life of generation, OF
the Unborn taste and nobility that ask
nothing from inheritance. l mean
something that compares with the
machine-made imitation, as the rich
and mellow tones of the cathedral
window, which the light of centuries
has tempered and softened, compare
with the crude and garish coloring oi
its modern copy. There are society
women upon whom the mantle of the
old-time lady has fallen, through ma.
ture or heritage, whose social gifts
are the sum of many gifts, the crown
Of many womanly virtues. One finds
them everywhere, women who cher
ish the fine amenities, who are gra
cious, intelligent, tactful, kind, ant
active in all good works, who under
stand the art of elegant living, a:
we'll as the intrinsic value of things
and like to open their hospitablt
homes forthe pleasure of their friends
1t is such as these who represent thu
finest flower of our womanhood anc
help to preserve the traditions of gen
tie manners, which are in the way o.
being trampled out in the mad marcl
of something we call progress. 1t i
for those to ostracize vulgarity, tt
put up the delicate barriers which
have been permitted to be let dowr
between the pleasant comradeship o
men and women, and the loud note Q
familiarity, to temper the sordid spir
it of commercia1ism with the refine
ments of that higher class of intellec
which sees things not only as the.
are, but as they ought to be.
FRIEND (after ea)-"Your littl
wife is abrilliant1y handsome woman
1 should think you would be jealou
of her."
Host (confdentially ITO tell tn
truth Simykins, am. Inever woul
invite anybody here that any san
woman would take a fancy to-.