Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1904-11-05
SOCIETY IN ENGLAND
POWER OF CASTE AND INFLUENCE
or THE LANOOWNlNG GLASS.


The Number of Things Tint n "Gcn-
tIemnn" Cannot DO Without Losing
Social PrestiRc liz Too Great by
Far to Catalogue.
An interesting book might be writ
ten on the influence of the English
lan downing class. Even i'll these days
of ubiquitous manufactures, when to
look ut IL map of England is to wonder
how it is possible for Il lanlowning
class even to exist, the social and po-
litical influence of that class is some
thing more than maintained.
The ambition of every successful
Englishmau is to have "a place in the
country to get foothold Oh the as
piring territorial ladder, and the ranks
of the Eanlcd gentry are continually
being reenforced, more so perhaps to-
day than ever before. by recruits from
tn. Industrial army. The immense util-
ity of the English country gentleman
will not he questioned by any one who
really knows England.
But ut the same time it Is equally in
diSputablc that the sort of life he ar
fects-thc endless Indulgence In sport,
the salmon stream, the grouse moor
the hunting box the pheasant preserve
and so on--is on the whole one of more
or less harmless and often irresponsi-
bic illencss and that the nciShborllood
in which he lives is rarely apt to re-
gard him as an apostle of strenuous
ness.
The country" everywhere stands for
leisure, and so long as the country
continues to represent the supreme OBJ
ject of an EngliShman's ambition and
his social ideal so long will England be
,eisurely.
Again, in an old and stable land, with
social standards as fixed as the social
foundations and governed by mon
archy, the conventions play an enor-
nous part, and the conventions In Eng
land are all against hard work. 1t Is
the leisure class that rules. that makes
up society, that holds all the positions
men naturally cOvet.
A sort of -Four Hundred" atmos-
DItIe ~ -h'''
one gets a whiff of it ON Fifth avenue
and ut Newport. but in England one Is
never away from it. The number OF
things, for instance, that Il gentleman
cannot do without losing social caste Is,
in England, so prodigious as to form
almost IL schedule of forbidden i'll
duStries. There are some trades and
professions that are respectable" and
those that are not.
Only an Englislman knows which is
which. why doctor ranks socially
above Il dentist, why man who sells
should be ctricvably below the man
who manufactures. and he, the Eng
lishman, knows 1t by an instinct which
is born in him and which he never
examines and so cannot define. Any
one who can tell why the merchant
should consider himself and be con-
sidercd by others the social superior
of the biggest storekeeper in the king
dom will be we'll on the way toward
understanding England
The daughter of wealthy manufac-
turer of kettles marries the owner or
the largest dry goods store in London.
Why should she be thought and spO-
ken of as having married little,
though only little. beneath her: Ter
scnally, l do not know. | merely OBJ
serve, without attempting an eXplana'
ton, that the man in the wholesale
business is more looked up to than the
man in the retail business, that While
the former is not averSe to talking
about his affairs, the latter is only too
anxious to sink the shop" and that
social position In England Is regulated
by host Of perfectly Fictitious and
conventional considerations more read
lily felt than expressed.
Such graduations exist of course to
some extent everywhere, but nowhere
are they so stereotyped. nowhere do
they strike so deeply, as in England.
have never yet been able to discover
m Englishman who had not the social
privilege Of dcspising some other Eng
lishman. and the lower one penetrates
I'm the social scale the more complex
and mysterious and the more riEidly
defined do these lines of demarcation
become.
/ The point il that throughout England
the sense of the nobility of work for
its own sake, if not actually lost. has
become so confused by the intrusion
of quite alien factors that the sphere
of ..ction open to young man Of what
ever rank is sensibly circumscribed.
The country. while democratic In form,
is not democratic in spirit. 1t has not
accepted and does not subscribe 10
that gospel of work which lies ut the
root of American strength, American
success, American democracy.
ANY one who has looked into English
trade unonism must have realized how
largely it is mixed up with class spirit.
The workingman who knows that his
employer drives down to the office at
half past 10. takes Il couple or hours
for lunch. is home again shortly after
r and thinks himself somewhat of a
"hustler'' if he is content with three
months holiday in year is not likely
to have Il keen appreciation of the dig
! nity of labor. His ideal insensbly be-
comes that Of doing as little as he can,