The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-10-29
WATTERSOHOH SOCIETY
His Idea Of What It Is and
What 1t Should Be.
THE "swAaeER sET DEEoUEoED.

Louisville Editor Calls Newport the
ADotheosis Of boredom and AakA,
..aiust the Monkey and the SVEN
BE Accepted as INTERCHANGEABLE
Types of Human Breedlng ana
Beautys"
Colonel Henry Watterson, editor OF
the Louisville Courier-Journal. who de
llvered his lecture on Society the 9TH
er evening IN Carnegie Music hall, All
legheny. Pa, before an enthusiastic au-
dience, said in part:
IF any one has come here this even
ing under the impression that he or she
would be RECALLED by any pretended rev
elations, by any startling dissertations
and exhilarating diatribes touching
that curious exhalation Of polite society
known as the smart set sometimes
calling itself the swagger set-I am
afraid / shall disappoint his or her ex-
peetation. Anyhow. and in the begin
ming, | must forestall that misimpres-
sion have no story 70 TELL no mys.
terry to reveal. Assuredly / am not
crusader either as TO manners or NOR
ais
Something over year ago most
lamentable tragedy, taking for its mise
Gu scene the very yestibule if the tenn
/ pie Of fashion-th sanctum sanetorum
/ of the -Four Hundred led me in the
I line Of my duty as a writer for tile
/ press to say some exceeding plain and
| it may have been thought, some very
harsh things about the nouveaux riches
the idle rich, the God forgetting
world defylng, pleasure seeking rich.
who set themselves as law unto
themselves, who submit to no restraints
except those fixed by nature and the
surgeons knife, who have no intellec-
tual perspective except that the longest
purse brings down the biggest titles,
nor rule OF conduct except that inn
Polling them to eat, drink and be mer-
ry, for tomorrow it may be some one
else's turn; d code which ! am told be-
/ came altogether the rage in Babylon
some centuries ago
y 3
} Is Tom Thumb manhood? Must the
] monkey and the swell be accepted as
/ interchangeable types, as alternating
measurements of human breeding and
beauty
Indeed one would think SO, reading
some Of the reports that come to us
from the inner circles Of that apotheo-
sis Of boredom, that incarnation Of stu
pidity and affectation which takes IFS
cue FROM Leicester square and the
Corinthian club Of London which emu
! lates the demimondaine Of Paris. which
eddies round the abodes OF luxury and
aIimony at Newport and thinks no
more Of running down an ordinary pc
! destrian in its automobile than you and
!, would think Of brushing away a
spider or a fly.
"Sursum corda Gift up your hearts,
| at least have never wasted many
!, thoughts or mursed any serious fears
about such cattle. nor shall | do so I'M
til monkey dinners become as popular
! in Pennsylvania as they seem to be in
Rhode Island
; Il know that in each of our centers
of population and wealth there is a lit
j tie coterie Of silly women and shipper
ing Johnnies which would initiate the
imitators, but they are too shallow and
too scattered to make much Roadway
against society, and by society | mean
/ not merely those who by their eharac-
/ ter, their genius and their good fortune
have earned the right to dwell in great
houses without the suspicion of the os-
tentatious display Of wealth, to have
picture galleries and libraries and
horses and carriages and, if they please.
yachts and automobiles, but behind
them that great army Of the well bred
and well to do that noble American
commonalty, clean Of birth and clear Of
grlt--those cultivated men and women
who live without scandal and travel
without adventure-not rich indeed
but quite able to pay as they so the
rose and expectancy of true manhood
J and womanhood, the very buttress and
bell tower Of our free republic.
"These constitute what | call society
Radiating from the home, thrice bless
ed in dad and mann and granny,
i yea IN Bill and Joe, Sis and Co.. its
| influence penetrates the dark and the
| light, reaching from the fireside to the
counting room, from the counting room
to the asylum and the hospital and
somehow finding its way back again to
the roof tree and the hearthstone via
the schoolhouse and the house Of God;
never a thought Of the divorce court
not so much as the shadow Of a noble
lord to disturb its serenity or to
brighten its dreams.
May that society be forever true in
its politics to the lesson Of the greatest
good to the greatest number, in its REL
ligion to Christ and him crucifed."
cnoss4.5s. 49,. ~..mc