| OCR Text |
Show "TOUGHNESS" NOW VOGUE OF"SWELLS": t Author Deplores Gutter Manner Which Society ' Considers Smart. ' Tho most recent and fashionable form of affecta j tion is certainly not the least curious the affecta- 1 jj tion of "toughness." Whereas it was once tho f fashion to affect a refinement and delicacy we did not really possess, it is now the fashion to affect a vulgarity and brutality to which, it is to be hoped, , we are equally strangers, Richard Le Gallicnne I i writes in McClure's. It is a mark of contemporary , j "smartness" so far as possible to discard the tra- r dltional amenities of good breeding and gentle manners. To employ these is, indeed, to run tha it risk of being dubbed "sissy." To be polite is to k invite ridicule. ;i; ! Nor aro these social decorations disregarded uf t favor of some ideal of greater simplicity or natur t. alness. Tho social ideal in vogue Is, on the con- trary, modeled on the elaborate brutalities of tha criminal classes, tho style, speech and etiquette j of the gunman and the gutter. To talk "tough," to ft j dress "tough,; to walk and dance "tough" such Is j the ambition of the smart person of either sex at i the present moment. "Slouch" has been substituted i for grace and slang for civilized speech. Beautiful j girls talk like "yeggmen," and their partners Invito t. them to dance with the heavy proprietorial air of a , Bowery gallant. f Of course, we know that it is all affectation, a curious form of masquerading or, at least, wo may hope that it Is. No doubt It is a more or less con- (. S scious reaction against the extremes and imitations ' j of the old-fashioned "refinement," the exaggera- 'x tions of "sweetness," and as such there is a tonlo ; ' virtue in it, for it is only vulgarity that is always j "refined." Yet the protest has gone far enough, , and it Is time to recall that really fine manners are $ h sometimes quite worth while, and that gentleness i and delicacy, are not necessarily effeminate. 0Q f; the contrary, manners and manliness usually go ; together. , f |
