FEMININE SNOBS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2130, 1 November 1875, Page 4

FEMININE SNOBS.

It would seem that there hare ever been class distinctions and that there ever must be, but there is no valid reason why a number of purely artificial barriers should be raised between the different sections of a community. Novv-a-days society does not consist merely of three classes but of a score or two, the members of which heartly hate and mistrust each other. Indeed, it is not going to far to say that society is divided into an inimensenumber of contemptible cliques; the result being that when a hundred people are drawn promiscuously together the majority are so impressed with a sense of their importance and exalted condition that they proudly decline to condescend to have anything whatever to say to ninetenths of those by whom they are surrounded. A man may have brains, he may have refined tastes, he may be hardworking and upright in all his doings, and he may be of presentable appearance, but he is not saved from receiving cruel rebuffs, as he journeys through life, from those who are vastly inferior to him and might be much improved by friendly intercourse with him, and who flatter themselves that they are his superiors in position. Now men are largely responsible for this melancholy state of things ; but we are inclined to think that the greater portion of the blame — for what is deplored — must rest upon feminine shoulders. No doubt there are many male snobs ; but, as a rule, men are not inclined to be so particular as to whom they associate with as are women, and it is highly probable that if they were not exposed to female influences they might be led to act so that lines of demarcation which separate people might become less broadly defined and in many cases be entirely obliterated. As it is 3 there are thousands of men who have hundreds of acquaintances of whom they cannot —whom, indeed, they dare not admit to their family circles, and these acquaintances not unfrequently ripen into warm friends. The people whom a man meet at the various places which he visits during, his walks abroad please* 1 him and he can freely mingle with them without his sense of selfrespect being in any way hurt, for they are equal to him in point of ability, and their natures are as pure and elevated as Ms own. But he knows that if he were to introduce them them to his femine connections things would often be said which would please neither them nor him, so he keeps knowledge of them, so to speak, to himself and gets his pleasure out of them in a stealthy manner. Perhaps he is wise to act in this fashion; but it may still be thought that it would be better if he pursued an independant course and elected his friends on the score of their intrinsic Tnerits rather thpn on that of their meretricious surroundings. It must not be forgotten, however, that he would then, in many instances, be subject to a neverending course of " nagging," and it may be remarked that as the constant dropping water will wear away a stone so will a nagging woman in the end get pretty much what she wonts.

It may be asked how it comes about that women are more snobbish than men. Probably this is because they have less real work to do, and so have more time to think about their neighbours and their surroundings than have men; because they have little actual contact with, the world, and because they have, from their earliest days, the principles of snobbishness carefully instilled into them. The course of education to which school-girls are subjected is, of itself, calculated to. make them gnobs. Certainly, it would be well if means were taken to render women less snobbish than they are, for as bad as a male snob is, a female snob is infinitely worse. For one thing, she is more spiteful. It is the wife of Grandee, and not Grandee himself, who has sucli a magnificent contempt for • people engaged in retail trade that she would become pale with indignation and dismay if it transpired that a daughter of the house of Grandee was being educated alongside the daughter of Haberdasher, who, though he could buy Grandee up once or twice, has been unfortunate enough to make his money by selling tape by the yard and buttons by the dozen, while Grandee has dealt in them in the bulk. Then again, it is she, not he, who carefully weighs up all the qualification and possessions of those persons who arc introduced into the house of Grandee. It is she who goes in for making people know their places. It is she who can meet aso called inferior in the streets and gaze at him as if he were a piece of inanimate sculpture. It is she who can keep would-be upstarts down. It is she who can forsake old friends because they have " become so dreadfully low, you know," that it really would not do to associate with them. It is she who seems to imagine that those who are paid to serve her are of a race apart from herself, in the same, though a lesser degree, as are dogs, horses, and other animals. It is she who flaunts her riches and power in the face of the world. And, finally, it is she who sees a superiority and potentiality in herself which are not discerned by other people.— Liberal Eeview.