Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-05
L0NDON'S SMART SET
CRAVING FOR Exc1TEMENT-
VIEWS OF MoRALIsTs.
Society Not More Frivolous and Wick
ed Than in "the Good Old
Days"
From the London Chronicle.

From the London Chronicle.
The vices of any age always seem I'M
paralleled to it's contemporary moralists
with a talent for believing the worst. To
read Pope you would think that the FASH
ionable women of his time outbra zened
Messalina, and that there never were such
rakes and gamblers even in Juvenafs day.
We have lately been informed by very
sober oracle that the craving for excite
ment has demoralized the whole nation;
that people welcome catastrophe because
it adds piquancy to the days talk; that the
general .lightmindedness'' makes even the
tone of the regency seem earnest by COM
parison Oddly enough. Creevey was cited
as an example of the earnestness of that
period He was certainly keen and cool
observer He tells us how the regent met
the Duke of Leeds, and said. Duke you
are one of the few men can trust. Dine
with me today at g. (which he did,
adds Creevey, land they both got SO drunk
as to be nearly speechless." Such was the
earnestness of George and some of his
trusty advisers. The great Lord Grey we
learn from the same historian, had an am
btion far above politics. He had passed
the reform bill, but that did not satisfy
his soul There was talk of Taglioni, and
Grey said, quite earnestly, What would /
give to dance as well as her.
The statesman who had been prime min
history of his country. was envioGs of an
opera dancer. Being an entirely rational
chronicIer, Creevey does not wag a re-
buking finger at this awful example of the
prevailing Observation-Disclosures Nor does
he point out that Grey's grammar was one
of the vices of the aristocracy. But for
moralist without humor or any sense of
proportion, what picture of the times
this incident must conJure up! If Grey
would have eagerly sacrificed his career
to dance as well as Taglioni, to what
depths of ignominy must the England of
his day have fallen! The regency was
far worse than we thought, and II So
ciety now is even worse than the regency,
what pen, though it be dipped in flame,
can paint the shame of our condition?
Old Vices in a New Age.
Something like this task is cssayed by the
author of a pamphlet entitled THE Sin
and Scandal of the 'Smar. Set 4" 1t is
whitening indictment of the people who
carry on the endless tradition of frivolity
in high places, and frivolity of idleness, too
much money and unwhoesome pastimes.
1t is a phenomenon as old as any in the
worlds history, but it scans to be quite
new to the lady who has written this
pamphlet in a style which should strike.
awe into kitchenmads. She believes that
u1less something drastic can DC done to
make the smart set moral and sensible,
the poison of this frivolity will infect the
whole social system.
One grave symptom is spreading already.
Nearly everywhere talk berrays quite
novel departure from grammatical rules"
the clipping of ''g's'' is almost as universal
the introduction of an ''riN after the final
vowel. Wherever a slang term can be used,
it is accepted for the formal word. Inven-
ton of slang terms is the only intellectual
exercise which the smart set permits
itself. "Man-Man" for royal parsonage
and 'deevie" for delightful and 'nightie''
for nightgown, are brilliant examples. But
pal for friend, "ratin'' for scoldiny,
and run dry for hard up do not belong
to the present age of ingenious euphern;sm
Nor is hard up classical English as the
pamphleteer seems to imagine. AS for the
clipping of &c society has clipped them
time out of mind. The practice is at
least as old as the sale of daughters in the
marriage market. which the new censor
supposes to be a novel departure At
Mrs. Hobson Newcomers evening party
Col. Newcome was incens5d to find that the
star of the season was a shady oriental he
had known in India. who was passing him
self off as His Highness Rdmmun Lol.
owner of diamond mines in tiolconda. 'IIow
the girls crowd around himr' remarked
Barnes Newcome to his uncle.
by Cad, fellow who's rich in London
may have his pick of any gal-not here-not
in this sort of thing. 1 mean in society.