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Show SNOBS AND NOBS. Of course the "talk in the cars" was largely of "this belle" and "that beau," of who was "successful," and who was not, and the words snob and nob rang loudly, and "good form" and "good position," and "bad position," came freely with all that sort of talk. "It sounds queerly to a foreigner," said an Englishman by my side. Then I told him that "position" troubled Americans as much as it did English people, probably more, and then he said of snobs and nobs that they belong to all lands, they have no geographical limits, they are of many kinds. The elegant, refined snob is rather to be pitied, for he has much that is admirable in him. He is the embodiment of fastidiousness. Reverence, taste and delicacy may enter into his character. He is simply a coward, a social poltroon. He has a natural tremulosity. He is ashamed of his own father. And as this weakness is no sooner felt than known, he becomes the sport and the victim of society, and its cats toss him as they would a mouse. A season at a watering-place must be to him a sort of mental measles, a social varioloid, a continual hornet's nestBwhom to know; whom not to know; whom to bow low to, whom not to bow at all to; whom to court and whom to avoid B who can tell all the terrible alternatives? But the vulgar snob is far more disagreeable, but not half so uncomfortable to himself. For he may have a sort of brute courage. He is apt to be a foreigner of ignoble antecedents, misled by wealth to a high position in this land, which he could never hold in his own. His tyranny is enormous if he gets power, his subserviency supreme if he is kept down. But we have the native snob to the manner born, also. We have seen men unequal to the courage of their opinions, unable to meet and dance with a lady whom they may be privately courting, if she is not fashionable. Such a character Howells has penned in the "Chance Acquaintance." Women snobs are not so common as male snobs. They are full of courage, as a general thing, and although we see here and there a very toad-stool growth of snobbery, women who hold society in the palm of their hand, may be cruel but they are not snobs. Old tabbies put down young pussies; beautiful, unknown women have hard work to climb; society is a business, and a social talent is as great a gift as any other gift. Some women have it, others have it not. Whether from temptation or otherwise, women often fail from being as great or as good as they should be, but their temptation towards snobbery seems less than that of men. In our society, the influences which are vulgar and demoralizing, youths trample down, but that should not discourage the philosopher. "A breezy person of courage" can triumph over them all, gain the sweet and refrain from the bitter. The real privileges of society, that contact with our fellows, which leads to the sharpening up of our wits, which takes out of us morbid feeling and self-conceit, that large, wise education of contact; that absence of self consciousness which comes from much knowledge of the world -- all these are real privileges of society into which the snob can never enter, because he is afraid, but the person of courage can enter and enjoy them all. A watering-place is a good field for observation. There are "gentlemanly clerk." These officials however, know their man and treat him with disdain. "He shall serve his brethren" is written over the door of his five-story back bed room. It is blackened into his boots. The snob eats the bread of humiliation. The social success is always a pleasing spectacle; a person of culture, beauty, grace, cordiality, or simple good breeding, going from one house to another receiving the compliments of all, receiving and giving pleasure, such is the happy fate of a few. To such a person one may say has been given the cap of Fortunatus. The old fairy legends point to the fact that always has society held these favorites who wear the ring of Gyges and possess the lamp of Aladdin. I think they now call the lamp and the ring "Tact." Human nature, after all, with all its defects, is a great, noble and loveable thing. Perhaps its best side does not come out at a watering-place, but the world is not detestable; it has a great side toward the sun. The familiar snob is a disagreeable species; his familiarity is insolent, his assumption of acquaintance is abominable. Many snobs got on at a watering-place on the pretended association of another watering-place. "I have just left Saratoga, and Mrs. Smith sent me to you. We were very intimate with the Smiths, and they begged me to report myself to you," etc. Such is the formula. What can be more embarrassing or exasperating to a prominent woman of the world than such an assumption and such a false claim? No woman can afford to be rude to a man whom she must meet every day at the hotel, or cottage or daily drive. The familiar snob who assumes an air of intimacy which he has not, is a bore. The worthy, the thinking, the hard-working, the really good men, retire before such a person; he is the deadly Upas tree of watering place society. -- Correspondence Boston Traveller. |