Life — September 6, 1900 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“While there ia Life there's Hope.” VOL. XXXVI. SEPT. 6, 1900 No, $30. 19 West Tuiety-Finet _drablished every Thorsday. 850 0 5 o forelan cyan rien in the a year extra Single current copies, Hack numbers, after three months from dato of publication, conte, No contribution twill be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope. The illustrations in Live are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers, Prompt notification should be sent by sub- acribers of any change of address, MPATIENT Eng- lishmen are sol- * acing themselves for the situation in China by wrangling wordily over what they are going to do by and by to the Chinese. Private citizens apparently deem it of the utmost impor- tance that they shall make up their minds in advance on this subject, and communicate their views to the world. Even the sedate Suturday LReciew has offered its colamns for the discussion, and un- sparing eloquence has been the sad result of such editorial amiability. “All contributors are in a manner fierce,” says the wise Ettrick Shep- herd; but the Srturday Reciew con- tributors are either roaring like lions or bleating like the gentlest of sheep. Scarcely has one indignant gentleman decided on his own authority that Prince Tuan and Tung Fuh-siang must be promptly decapitated “on the scene of their crime.’’ when a milder cor- respondent comes along, reprobating such revengeful deeds, and insisting upon leniency and moderation. What no one suggests is that Prince Tuan and Tung Foh-siang should be first caught, and the question of their punishment deferred until this prelimi- nary step be taken, That Pekin shall be razed to the ground—“ effaced,” and a tablet erected on its site ‘to record that here once stood the accursed city,’’ is the unflinching determination LIFE of a very ardent writer too modest to sign his name ; whereupon Mr. Bernard Shaw comes boldly to the front, insist- ing that such a large order of retribution is totally incompatible with the Christi- anity and civilization of Great Britain, and working himself up into a white heat over the lamentable ‘‘nervous- ness" of his countrymen What no one even hints is that the allied Powers may possibly have some views of their own to offer. Perhaps—human events being at best uncertain—these agitated controver- sialists might do well to recall Mr. John Browdie’s excellent advice to Miss Fanny Squeers anent the vaming of that chaste virgin’s future female offspring. OXF of the organs of American snobbery, that is, one of the journals whose main stock in trade is “society ” news, takes Mr. Thomas Nelson Page seriously to task. His denial that the Newport persons recently admonished by their pastor for the evil example set by their do- mestic lives were really representatives of the American social code, is called rank ingratitude. It seems that Mr. Page, after having created for himself a reputation as a possessor of brains, went to Washington to live. Wash- ington is inhabited by all sorts of folks. On its social side it is more cos- mopolitan than any city in the United States. Among the people within its walls who entertain and are enter- tained, are vulgarians brought into prominence by political accident, newly rich who hope to get into ‘‘society’’ by sufficiently often rubbing shoulders with those already in at Washington’s more public social fanctions, and foreign adventurers who hope to find in Washington the social ‘‘open door.’’ Besides these, there are some cultivated and refined families who entertain, whose names are dragged into the “society” prints without their con- sent, and who are glad to extend their hospitality even to persons of brains. Mr. Page has mingled with them per- haps more to their advantage than his. Here is where the ingratitude comes in. Because, perchance, Mr. Page’s name has appeared in print along with those of the Newport examples, also guests at Washington homes, he is expected from the ‘' society ’? point of view to be their literary champion instead of critic. He may have been at entertainments where some of them were present, he may even have eaten at the same board with others. It is therefore called by the “ society "" print an ungrateful breach of the laws of hospitality for him to perceive and say that the Newporters are degener ate snobs, and that they are not true representatives of the American society and home -life whose example is watched and copied by the entire seventy millions of American people. The truth of Mr. Page’s denial is not questioned. He is ungrateful simply because he saw the truth and wasn’t afraid to state it. The moral of the whole matter seems to be that self-respecting literary per- sons should be very careful about get- ting into mixed society. woty “NE [Tmt the Newporters have some influence as social examples can* not be entirely denied. Their extreme and extravagant doings lend them- selves more readily to the use of the yellow press than the moderate enjoy- ments of Americans who do not ape the decadent symptoms of effete aris- tocracy. As self-paraders they are quite in touch with the advertising spirit of the age. In matters matrimonial they are thorough going expansionists, and their divorces and re-marriages are public events. Of the stately hospi- tality of our fathers, where quality went before quantity, taste before cost, and sincerity before display, they know nothing. But their exhibitions are in full view of the American pub- lic, and to shallow minds may repre- sent the highest ideals of social existence to be attained or copied. The Newporters themselves do not take themselves seriously. In face of Mr. Page’s general denial, it is to be feared that some impressionable Americans do. | + comicbooks.com