Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-24
CRITICISES SMART SET
HENRY WATTERsoN DELIVERS
LECTURE AT PITTsBURG.
He Makes Scathing Allusions to the
So-Called Swell Society Of
New York.
A dispatch from Pittsburg last night

A dispatch from Pittsburg last night
says:
Henry Watterson delivered his lecture on
Society" this evening in Carnegie Music
Hall. Allegheny. before a small but enthu-
siastic audience. The unusually cold
weather that prevailed during the evening
was responsible for the light attendance.
Mr.. Watterson said:
Of any one has come here this evening
under the impression that he or she would
be RECALLED by any pretended revelations, by
any startling dissertations and exhilarating
diatribes touching that curious exaltation
Of polite society known as the smart set
sometimes calling itself the 'swagger set
l am afraid that 1 shall disappoint his or
her expectation. Anyhow, and in the be-
ginning. 1 must forestall that misimpres-
sion. have no story to tell no mystery to
reveal Assuredly. am not crusader
either to manners or morals
Something over year ago a most la
mentable tragedy. taking for its mise en-
scene the vestibule of the temple of fash
Ion, the sanctum Sanctorum Of the four
hundred. led me in the line of my duty as
a writer for the press to say some exceed
ingly plain. and, it may have been thought
by some. very harsh things about the nou-
veaux riches, the idle rich. the God-forget-
ting. world-defying, Demonstrating rich.
selves who submit TO no restraints except
those fixed by nature, who have no intel
lectual perspective except that the longest
purse brings down the bigs est titles nor
rule of conduct except that tmpelling them
to eat. drink and be merry, for tomorrow 1t
may be some one elses turn; a code which,
I am told. became altogether the rage in
Babylon some centuries ago.
THE society? Has Caliban grace? 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
apotheosis of boredom, that incarnation of
stupidity and affectation, which takes It's
cue from Leicester Square, and the Corin-
THAN Club. in London. which emulates the
demi-mondaine of Paris; which eddes
round the abodes of luxury and alimony at
Newport, and thinks no more of running
down an ordinary pedestrian in It's auto
mobile than you and 1 would think of
brushing away spider fly
'Sursum corda! lift up your hearts! I
at least have never wasted many thoughts,
or nursed any serious fears about such
cattle, nor shall 1 do so until monkey
dinners become as popular in Pennsylva-
MIA as they seem to be In Rhode Island. I
know that in each Of our centers OF popu-
lation and wealth there is a little coterie Of
| silly women and simpering Johnnies which
| would initiate the imitators: but they are
| too shallow and too scattered to make
much Roadway against society, and by So
| ciety mean not merely those who, by their
| character. their genius. and their good for
| tune, have earned the right to dwell in
| great houses. without the suspicion Of the
| ostentatious display of wealth-to have pic
| ture galleries and libraries, and horses and
carriages. and, II they please, yachts and
automobiles-but behind them that great
| army of the well-bred and well -to-do-that
| noble American commonaIty. clean Of birth
and clear of grt-thOse cultivated men and
| women, who live without scandal and trav-
Ell without adventure-not rich, indeed, but
quite able to pay as they go-the rose and
expectancy of true manhood and woman
hood, the very buttress and bell tower of
our free republic.
These constitute what I call society
Radiating from the home-thrice-b blessed in
dad and mann and granny yea, in bill
and Joe, Sis and Colts Influence pene-
trates 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 hearth
stone via the schoolhouse and the house of
| God; never a thought of the divorce court
l not so much as the shadow Of "a noble lord
\ to disturb its serenity OF to frighten its
| dreams. May that society be forever true
| in It's politics to the lesson of the greatest
| good to the greatest number; in its re-
| ligion. to Christ. and Him crucified."