Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-02-22

opa whose general low -downness'' has
made him q byword among us-are
heated to the same token of Difference.
PM we do not accord it to lawyers.
orr able representative in Congress is
Harry" to us still, and the distin-
auisfed gentleman who speaks for us
in the Senate viii be known as Jim
White as long as there are those who
re member that young fellow who mar
ried one Of our incest girls" AS for lack
of cultivated intellect, that doesn't
necessarily disqualify person for 4
position in our regard, any more than
the opposite. by itself, entities him to it.
We love to tell stories of the local Mrs.
Malaprop. who fused prodigiOusly to
purchase an elegant silver mouTted
toothbrush for her guest-chamber and
refused an invitation to 'p3rtakc of q
cold collation. on the plea that she
had already collded with her husband
at home" But though we laugh at
Mrs Malaprop we like her. and that
not because of her money-though she
has more than most of us-but on ac-
count of her unfailing good humor her
Willingness to entertain and be enter
tanned, and her Jealous activity in
church work.
And church lines, by the way, are
rot drawn with any rigidity among US.
The Congregational church, to be sure,
holds our nearest approach to con-
servatism and wealth, while the Meth
oGist organization attracts a great
many people WHO are slipshod in their
graz mar and bit over-emotional in
their views of life. But between the
Two extremes the gradatons are very
slight. and there is no church whose
membership irsureS social recognition
Neither is there any street in which you
must live under pain of being con-
sidered out of it, if you don't. There
are of course, sections of the city
which are more uniformly prosperous
than others, and there is the Point"
given over to sailors boarding houses
( and worse. where nobody lives" But
( if you come away from the Point and
! behave yourself and are sociable and
friendly, and dress WELL your origin
will never be seriously counted against
YOU | know, for / have seen.
| Neither does a mans occupation dis
qualify him in our regard. A very dear
friend of mine. who is proud of being
the best tailor this side Of Boston, is
wont to remark with Il humorous
twinkle, that you are likely to meet
your tailor i'm the best society," And it
is true. Without family influence, with
out wealth-eVen as moderate Cumnor
counts such matters-this man has be-
! come an influence in the city. simply
by virtue of his brains, his common
sense and his eminent sociability. He
has political power-all he is willing to
undertake-and such social prestige
that the young men Of the town initiate
his manners and for girl TO pc
! known as his daughter is to have even
the most conservative doors Hospitality
oren to her. One of the most popular
xcung fellows I ever knew was clerk
| in a grocery store, and drove the dellv-
erv cart every morning. A girl just
home from Commonwealth avenue
hoarding-school divides her dances
among a dapper young Italian barber
a sturdy telephone lineman, faie
baseball player who is the son of our
Representative in Congress, a Joviai
Irish hotel clerk, a salesman from urS
goods shop. and a young lawyer fresh
| from BOWQOlU anu w. AA'N
dancer of all, and valued Accordingly
is the barber. while the hotel clerk IS
likely to be the most amusing talhei'
Rut Miss Page-and-Shaw REGARDS theih
all with great favor, and her chuin
from a conservative little New YORK
town. who is spending the vacation In
Cumnor. soon loses her slightly sur
nrised stare and enjoys her first eX-
nerience of 1.-THE Lady of the Lake.
with an agile mail-carrier for part
| ner.
She also meets socially-and even in
timately-girls who work "off and on
az bookkeepers. stenographers, milli-
ners and dressmakers. The young Wo-
men of Cumnor think it is great larks
| to be allowed to wait on customrs at
dry goods shop during the "Christmas
rush" and the stenographer who mas
easy hours and a tractable employer is
much envied. as possessing better social
opportunities than the average. me
girls in one set that | know separate
in a curious fashion when they come to
Rostcn. One visits the family of rich
brewer in Roxbury; one, carefully
guarded gets peeps at the choicest bits
of "cld Boston" from her aunt's house
on Beacon street; another, in Somer-
VILE. frolics to her hearts content with
statesmen and drug clerks such as she
has known at home; While fourth
and she perhaps has the most fun of all
learns from a West End boarding.
house the varied semi-Bohemian life of
art students, young musicians and
embryo litterateurs. Back in Cumnor
again, they take up the old intimacy in
the old cordial spirit. and the Beacon
street girl is no more conscious OF
difference than is the one who has just
returned from Somerville. Henry says
he thinks Curhnor is good deal like a
fire or a smoking-car, in that it seems
to level all ranks and set social dis
tinctions at n3ught. That seems to me
Iurid comparison, but in effect it is
true. We are no respecters of persons,
and an aristocrat who insisted on the
perquisites of his highly precarious
position would find our community
rough shedding for his desires. AS Mr..
Harry Thurston Peck once remarked
of THE New American Aristocracy,"
1T is all very well to feel intensely that
you are a most superior person and
that you are better than most of those
YOU meet, but if you can't get them to