Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-08

1t is beautiful to watch things grow
college curriculi and all that sort OF
thing. Time was when the most ad-
vanced institutions OF lesrnlng-Har-
ward, Yale and the best dancing acad-
emieS-confned themselves conserva-
lively to the classics, never venturing
outside Of Greek or Latin. Then they
broadened out to take in the Romance
languages, which perhaps refers to
| fiction or something. And in the nine
tenth century they began to recognize
Science-Christian or veterinary. But
| it remained to the end of the third
| decade of the twentieth century for the
most erudite of science schools to add
manners to its profound curriculum.
Manners! Not to the manor born, but
| manners assumed and acquired, which
when fully digeSted makes the perfect
| college snobx
or course, such progressiveness found
its ma tional origin" in Boston and in
| the Boston Tecfl-of all institutions
the most technical and progressive.
Snobbery is intricate and must be
achieved only by prayer and pretense,
but the Rogers chair of Snobbery is
solidly built and never runs down like
a screw chair before an Office desk.
Prof. Rogers directs all graduates of the
Boston Tech to change shirts daily,
collars twice a day and to use Nv"
wherever 1t is written "r,' giving it
the genuine British accent with rising
infection Of the eyebrows and snirk
at the boss daughter and a cold stare
st his Woodworking Stenographer.
That's Education Bostonese, a Ia
Rogers"
X X X X
The learned professor insists that he
meant just what he said" In urging his
young men to cultivate snobbery, even
as he was himself a snob.
In most environments. it is safer to
call q man a liar than a Snop. It
would be quite CONNIE IL fault to assert
in meeting of the Bricklayers' Union
that the chairman was "scab," but
never "snob."
Now to be Scab might be iuStifable,
at times, if seven or eight of ones chill
dren were sick and the wife worn out
and the sustaining allotment to the
members was refused. A "scab" might
be tempted and fall-he might actually
work But a snob-he never works,
anyhow-and he just struts. The pro-
lessor wants his graduates to be-not
mere scabs but snobs. And he thinks
he can get away with murder and that!
X X X
Read the dictionary and get the true
definition and number of this Prof.
Rogers. He's not dancing professor,
nor ventriloquist, he's snobologist.
The dictionary says "a Scab Is a
workman who does not belong to or will
not Join nor act with a labor union. or
he takes the place OF striker. He's
a mean, dirty, paltry fellow" That's
dictionary definition of a mere scab.
but the same authority tells us that a
Srob is worse.
"Snob: A person who vulgarly affects
gentility, or pretends to superiority he
does not possess; one who apes and
cringeS TO his SuperiorS and is oVerbear-
ing to those whom ne looks upon as
being beneath him; one who regards
wealth or position rather than charac-
ter"
It's justifiable homicide-what hap
pens to the wretch who calls us that.
Liar, maybe. Thief, rogue, ambulance
chaser, pettifogger, demagogue or deIni-
god gentleman or scholar, but Snob?
Sooner would we funk Boston Tech
exam than permit life to continue in the
fiend who dared offer US e. Boston Tech
degree in snobbery. We would cut every
lecture Rogers ever made on that tech
nical subject, for. like Nathan Hale, our
regret would be that We had only one
bachelor Of snobbery.
* * X *
Thu standard text book. on Snchbsry
Is william Makepeace Thackeray's BOOK
Of SnobS" The author defines snob,
saying, "A tuft-hunter Is snob: O para
site Is O snob: the man who allows the
manhood within him TO be awed by
coronet Is a snob. The man who wor-
ships mere wealth Is a Snob."
Again, Thackeray (who did not admire
Rogerism) remarks: "A vulgar man in
England, chiefly showing off In his
coarse, dull. stupid way, Is snob."
And in 1865. the Saturday Review Of
England recorded: Happily, the annals
Of oxford present no instance of a Snob
murdered in the streets"
But then England Is given to boast
ing her ahssnce Of violence. England
Is not Boston; Oxford Is not the Tech. |
Besides, that record was made before