Social Moods.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 413, 14 April 1904, Page 2

Social Moods.

. .—*.— A'FOPS ARGUMENT.

SStjgj LIKE to see a crease running nicely asfs and evenly e own the centre of each §§£ leg of my trousers, and I part my hair in the middle for tho sake of symmetry. I do not believe in wearing the same necktie twice, for the simple reason that variety is charming. I use a lot of scent upon my handkerchief and clothes, because, in my opinion, the perfume of lavender or eau-de-Cologne is preferable to the stale reek of the baneful cigarette; and because I do these things and am scrupulous about the cleanliness of my linen, and careful of my personal appearance generally, I am sneered at, and called a fop. If everybody in the world was a fop war and crime would cease. Nobody would care about digging clayey trenches, and getting into a grimy mens with the dirt, to say nothing of the greasy, oily guns, and lyddite, and bloodstains. Everybody would be much too neat and well dressed to indulge in such dirty customs, and international difficulties would be settled bf arbitration, or in some other manner. Nobody would go burgling or housebreaking, for the simple reason that he would get nis clothes into a terrible state climbing through windows and soahng waterpipes, and hence foppery would help to keep our prisons empty. At the present day it is individuality which stamps the man. The straggler for prestige must do something original, something out of the ordinary groove, if he wishes to be taken notice of. If he cannot be original in any other way, he can at least; be so in his dress. Is & man who wears a blue serge suit, brown boots, and an imitation Panama hat, very likely to Bhine? Certainly not! If, however, he put on dove-coloured clothes, with a rose-pink veßt, a necktie the exact shade of his eyes, a soft hat to match his jacket, and patent-leather boots with grey uppers, he would attract attention at once. According to a standard dictionary, a fop is «one who seeks to gain admiration by showy dress.' Surely there is nothing deserving of sneers in that! The wish to gain admiration is quite a reasonable, even desirable, trait in a man's character. Some people try to gain it by winning motor-races, others by attempting to win yacht-races, A few earn it by walking to Brighton and other places, and a few more by taking commieions in the British Army and refraining from behaving as cads. Surely, therefore, a man is eiu»lly entitled to lay himself out to win admiration by means of his attire. Besides, is not foppishness picturesque ? Do the streets of London, or any other city, ever look as bright and gay with colour to-day as they did in the time of Baau Nash, Beau Brammell, and all those delightful old fops t Men were not contented then to slouch along in black coats and baggy-kneed trousers, but wore, and wore with grace, shapely garments in claret colour, crimson, green of various shades, to mention only a few tints, and in fabrics of rich silk and other such materials.

True artists are fond enough of painting street scenes of the period of fops, but it is rare to find one committing to canvas episodes of street life of the present day. Foppery and dirt cannot exist together. Were we a nation of fops, dirt would dis? appear, and with the disappearance of dirt would come the practical extinction of disease.

With foppery, although there is often a great deal of conceit, there is also always a certain amount of courtesy; and surely England courteous, free from dirt, disease, and crime, with ifs inhabitants gorgeously clad in bright colours is a consummation to be greatly wished for. Men laugh at women for talking so much about dress. When foppery reigns again it will be the chief topic of male conversation also, And is it not much more intelligent than speculation as to the probable winner of the St. Leger P MaBRTAGE IS UNPOPULAR. Thpre's one place where a young man is not being continually advised by his friends or 'the firm' to ' marry some nice, good girl and settle down.' Also where the nice, good girls are not being for ever told that they ought to stop flirting, and be serious for once in their lives, and marry some gcod man who will make tbem happy. That place is stagelaad. Stage folks do marry; lots of them have the marrying fever; they marry early and often, and they're pretty well on, I thank you, with the new love, often, before they're off with the old. Perhaps because there's so much hospitality in stageland to matrimony is the reason it thrives there. There's nothing like opposition for making marriages; and there's more opposition to marriage in stageland to the square foot than there ever was in all the decrees of church and State and stern parents of two centuries put together. The head of a big bank-'ng house promises promotion to the young men in his employ, in whom he is interested, when they are married. Heads of some big commercial institutions bestow a gift of twenty pounds or more on thair-faithful young men on their wedding-day; but the theatrical magnate does not go round to his matinee idol and chuck him under the fifth rib and laugh and say, 'Hear you're going to get married, my boy. Let me congratulate you,' Not much, he doesn't. Instead of that he pulls down his face until it is longer than the moral law, and he hunts up his star and says: * Say, what's this, Thompson, about you setting married P Look here, it won't do. SeeP Cat it out—cat it out. Forget itsee?'

And wfcea a leading lady is a victim of reports to the effect that she is soon to marry, she is apt to be told that she will be allowed to hunt tip another manager and a new company next season. Managers doa't like their stars to toy with Hymen. Not because the managers themselves are opposed to matrimony aa an institution, but because the box office is so bitterly set against it. Anything the box office says 'goes' with the managers. The box cffice is the court from which there is no appeal. The box office says that the public doesn't like married stars. The mntiaee girls can't gush over a stage idol if it is widely known that he is married and that his oldest boy is getting ready for cc liege. Actors realize that their public would rather have them single. So when they are married they don't say much about it. Husband and wife seldom travel in the same company. Even when tbey do the wife has her maiden or stage name on the bills, and the actors plainly intimate to dramatic and stage writers that the less said about the fact that the two are married the better.

When, a few years ago, the first season after Jalia Marlow had married Sobert Tabor, the actress had her aame printed on the bills Julia Marlowe-Taber, the receipts in the box office went down bo fast that her managers were driven halffrantic. They went to Mrs MarloweTaber and flatly told her that she must drop the hyphen Taber part of her name. When Bhedidso the receipts olimped back to the old place.