Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-06
Mr.. Watterson on the Four Hundred.

Courier-Journal has done many notable
things in his long course of usefulness ana
activity which have made for the betterment
of modern conditions. He has swung out
at evil and wrong whenever he saw an
opening, has denounced viciousness in pub
lie and private life wherever it might be
found, often regardless Of affiliations and
precedents. Nothing else. however, has
been more notably wholesome in all of his
active crusade against modern error than
his onslaught upon the decadent society of
the metropolis which is popularity styled the
-Four Hundred" in perpetuation Of the
mathematical limits set by the late Ward
McAllister.
Col Wattersons entry into this field as
knight-errant fitting in behalf of social
sanity was occasioned by a series Of enter
tainments given by leaders of the so-called
smart set at Newport, marked by the
grossest extravagances and the most
shocking mummeries. Conspicuous among
these was the famous monkey dinner, at
which smian guests of honor sat gravely
decked out in human habiliments a proper
associate of the men and women who,
granted human forms and brains by gen.
erous nature, have so wantonly wasted
their lives in fad-chasing.
Naturally. blast from the trumpet of so
skilled and determined lance bearer
shocked the simian set at Newport and the
satellite circles which surround this choice
inner focus of social disturbance. Society,
spelled with the largest capital in the Fifth
avenue fonts, resented this intrusion. At
first there was great hurrying to and fro
some open hooking, and much pretense of
indifference in the public gaze, but Society
again capitalized-was visibly and seriously
shaken. Monkey dinners were suddenly de-
clared to be bad form, and human guests
of honor at feasting functions We're once
more correct"
For there is a sra tum in Society which is
not wholly decadent. 1t Is composed of
wholesome-bodied and minded men and
women, who, though unfortunately at times
exposed to ridicule by the antics of the de-
cadents lead commendable lives. These
men and women were awakened to real
ization of the contempt aroused by the
frantic race for novelties and the efforts to
stimulate jaded tastes, and reform was
the result of the shock, reform for which
the credit belongs today to the veteran
Kentucky editor.
OF course, the reform is not complete
Col. Watterson.s lance is still in rest, as is
shown by the editorial from his newspaper
reprinted in full by The Star today. There
are many rotten places in the social body
yet, places which may forever defy cura-
tive efforts. There are scandals which
smell to heaven, disgraces which affront
every honest mans ideal of manhood and
civilization. But the case is not hopeless.
Influences are at work steadfastly, striving
to purify these plague spots. to awaken the
conscience of society to the duty 1t owes
to itself and to posterity to live correctly,
to think honestly. to walk decently. And
today, foremost among those influences,
stands the courageous Kentuckian, who in
his latest utterance asks for serious consid-
Grafton for his crusade, and closes with
these moving words:
Each and every community has its
would-be Four Hundred. Must we be con-
demned if, in a general way, we hold up the
aegis of the Republican idea-of the home
of the firesde-the aegis of any old idea,
so 1t be American-to remind them of our
common birthright, our title-deed to the
simple, homespun origin of the whole ships
crew of us-better than the crowns of kings
even when spotless-thrice honorable and
blessed, though scourged and sanctified by
poverty and rags, by comparison with the
crowns and dadems worn as those titled
Writings wear them-shall we, must we be
made the subject of raillery, in short, be-
ciety to a sense of it's obligations to moral
ity and God, to remind men of their man
hood, particularly to frighten and drive
back women from the awful precipice' of
the knowledge of evil, to which, first, the
vanity and curiosity of sex invites them,
wealth and luxury would fling them? Must
We? Shall weg'