New-York tribune., 1906-02-24
Il MERRY CRITIC.
Mrs. John Lanes Comments on
Modern Life and Manners.

! THE CHAMPAGNE STANDARD Ry Mrs John
Lane 4zno'' PIP Sl4 John Lane Company.
1t is not often that the reviewer comes upon
essays as amusing as these-little criticisms of
life and manners sparkling with humor over a
hmpid current of good sense and true-hearted-
| ness. If the essayist has swift sarcasm for
the mean and base and artificial it is sarcasm
wholesome and not sour. She is a very sage
now and then for a certain unsparing philoso-
ply, but 1t is put with all the easy animation
OF witty woman.
What Is the champagne standard which gives
a title to her book? 1t is. in a word, Pretence-
the cultivation of Appearances-the incapacity
TO have the courage of ones income" The es-
sayist calls this the curse of an age which only
judges Of success by material results, and she
offers various illustrations Of its phases in her
native land and in that of her adoption. There
for example, is the growing American mania for
ancestors:
The Heralds College could tell many a queer
forebears. An EnglishwOman told me that New
York family had annexed crusading forefather
chopped of. and TO whom they had no more right
edged that they Were pretty bad lot (the
Gestorsl. but she objected to have strangers med
added: genialy. coming over here and grabbing
Now. there is nothing so frank as a frank Eng
lish woman. What IS the use Of celebrated an
are as dull as ditch water and bore you TO dis
traction? I'd swap off my crusading ancestor and
| with brains But. mind you. l don't want your
American nilionaires grabbing EN- withoutleave"
Perhaps il is hardly necessary to believe in the
magnate's wife who sends for another diamond
necklace in the drawing room after dinner. be-
| cause she feels chilly: and we seem TO have
heard before the story of the millionaire who
| started in sfe peddling tripe" and who said at
! one OF his musical functions apropos of a great
vionist, I'VE pay such people, but don't
know them These absurdities are not impos-
| sible. and everyday thing is the evolution of
| Jones from the jolly. care free partaker Of a
| meat tea" at six TO the worried head Of the
| table at a six course dinner at which he can't
really afford. 20 vanity of vanitiesr" Thack-
cray has cried over such pretences 20 cham
| payne standard" cries Mrs. Lane.
| candid consideration Of housekeeping in
| England leads this American woman to the con-
| viction that truly comfortable living costs as
much in one country in the other. and that
| it is much harder TO secure comfort in the
motherland- How 1 WISH" she exclams, Il
! could clap big. stod conservative. frostbitten
! English 1natron into a snug American house,
| with a furnace and heaps OF closet (cupboard)
| room, and all sorts of bells and lifts and tele
! phones and then force her TO tell me the abso-
! Lutte unvarnished truth! What would she say?'
! The difficulties of the fair American who or
| ganizes home IN London. the kitchen come
| dies which wear an exasperating air Of tragedy,
| the odd British prejudices which confound such
| a newcomer-aIl these Mrs. Lane describes with
gayety. Writing of international differences she
| recalls the old days when the visiting English
| man was a rarer bird in this country than he IS
/ now.
, inably; one idol got bad manners and swelied
| head, and # always took him some time on his
! Englishmen. TO find his level again: The wife OF
condition IN which heF bagS ai 5S
She cried IT'S ali the fault of your women, who
She added with some bitterness that Englishmen
think they so charming and clever
chapter on the extravagant economy Of
/ women is full of laughing shrewdness. and
! breaches energetically the wisdom of realizing
| that what is too cheap is usually very dear. A
| plea for women architects rehearses anew the
| singular inconveniences of the average English
| house; and an attack the plague Of music
1 puts into words the sufferings of many worthy
/ persons smarting under the strummings OF
| mediocrity on the deadly haste with which
/ America is injecting the world In this electric
| age the essayist has some vigorous comments
together with an anecdote or two. One of these
! concerns the German director Of an art museum
who after a few months in the United States
! fatherland" and ragged in indignation:
| ..Tbese Americans oh. these Americans!" and Ire
tore his long hair. 4 haf a letter this morning
/ from a Young man, and he ask me-Gott in Him
/ mel fs II copceva ble?-he ask me I-I-I-what
- cali itP-gu -guarantee-that he become por
4 trait painter in three months It is TO grow mad!
.rWiu the world be as well off," asks our
writer 'if II has reached the summit and apex
! Of hl,rry?" And she answers her own question:
I'm those days there will be no more content
nent. for the electric age is. of all things. the
enemy Of contentment. Yes, by that time the
whole world will be discontented. and the uni
versal characteristic Of nations VIII be that
! they are tired-tired-tired."
The cIeyerest and most pungent of all these
| narers is that in which the author administers
! . nroper medicine to the Little Lions. II is
/ called 'On Taking Oneself Seriously and 1t
hits the different modern varieties Of swelled
| bood with a vim and an ingenuity which we
NAV not ungallantly admit is charmingy femi-
/ nine.
r AFH