The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-15

said, is to keep man from a self-satis-
faction which is retarding and vulgar
izing. 1t is in this spirit that some
criticisms, which in my humble judg-
ment are neither unreasonable nor un-
deserved, of our SO-called smart To-
peka society are offered If smart be
taken in its earlier sense of Snowy and
brilliant it might accurately be APP
piled to some phases of local society,
for the complaint is not that society
affairs here are not attended by pOmp
ana circumstance in proportion to the
size of the town and the wealth of the
people who compose our best circles.
But if smart is taken to include cor
rect form as well as correct fashion,
the best social usage known and prac-
tlced in polite society everywhere at this
time, then it must be amitted that there
is a certain inaccuracy in the applica-
ton of the adjective to conditions here.
Topeka society like the society of other
small western towns is in many re-
spects raw and provincial and it will
remain so until the highest class mere
follows the example of the higher
classes in the larger cities in the east
and adopts European ideas. l know
this will be received with a growl of dis
approval by those who declare the
chaperon system and other foreign GUS
toms 'un-American, and to some people
no more unanswerable argument could
be urged against a thing than that. 1t
our social customs the best in the world.
The American speaks sneeringly of
European usages in spite of the fact
that the greater age of those nations
might naturally be expected to have
resulted in practices at once wiser and
more elegant than our own. No doubt
the people who sOlemnly aSseVerate that
our customs are the best in the world
believe it, but the fact remains that
Europe is still the model for the best
American society, as it has always been
and European ideas are steadily grow
ing among us. In the best society in
the east the chaperon is firmly estab-
lished and marriages are arranged and
conducted largely in accordance with
continental ideas. These things are
justification of the frequently expressed
opinion of our foreign critics who have
predicted that this country would event.
ually outgTow its crude social uSages
and adopt foreign ideas. Our stubborn
national conceit, an inheritance from
the Anglo Saxon sources of our civili-
| cation, impelS us to shout ourselves
ho1rse in eulOgy of our own country and
/ disparagement of all others, but the
/ fact remains that however we may be
| In advance of them politically we can
still learn much from the nations of
/ Continental Europe in matters that ap-
pertain to society in it's limited sense.
| Foreigners who visit this country are
struck Immediately by the position &C
cup1ed by our women of the middle and
J
maintained in state of i6leness and
/ luxury and have nothing to do but en-
/ joy themselves while the men of the
families work to earn money for them
| to spend. Americans far from being
ashamed of this state of affairs are in
| clined to be proud of it and american
women accept without shame TIE rep
utat1on of PARASITES and consider it a
proof of their superiority over the wo-
/ men of other nations. But it is a fact
that the average American woman of
the upper middle class occupies the
| most humiliating and degraded position
of any of the civilized women of the
world. The dominant idea in the edu-
cation of the average American girl.
and this is very true of Topeka girls,
in the best society," is not merely the
4 necessity of making a social success
/ which = true of girls the world over
but Of winning the favor of men in or
DER that she may receive material fa-
/ Vors at their hands. A French Eng
fish or German mother would be horri-
/ fed at the idea of her daughters being
under such obligations to any man. not
relative, as the average girl in To-