FEMININE SNOBS.

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 69, 7 January 1882, Page 265

FEMININE SNOBS.

It would seem tliat there have ever been class distinctions and that there must ever be, but there is no valid reason why a number of purely artificial barriers should be raised between the different sections of a community. The creation of these artificial barriers has, in England, done an immense amount of harm, inasmuch as it has excited a great deal of ill-feeling, prevented people from drawing together who would be benefited by communion with each other, and rendered the. condition of society absurdly anomalous. Nowadays, society docs not consist merely of three classes, but of a score or two, the members of which heartily hate and mistrust each other. Indeed, it is not going too far to say that society is divided into an immense number 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 nine-tenths of those by whom they arc surrounded. A man may have brains, ho 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 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, but 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 the lines of demarcation which separate the people of this country might become less broadly

defined and in many cases be entirely obliterated. As it is, there are* thousands of men who have hundreds of acquaintances whom they cannot— Avliom, indeed, they dare not — admit to their family circles, and these acquaintances not uufrequently ripen into warm friends. The people whom a man meets at the various places Avhich he visits during his walks abroad please him, and he can freely mingle with them without his sense of self-respect being in auy way hurt, for they are equal to him in point of ability, and. their natures are as pure and elevated as his own. But he knows that if he were to introduce them to his feminine connections things would be said which would please neither them nor him, so he keeps his knowledge of them, so to speak, to himself, and gets his pleasures 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 independent course and elected his friends on the score of their intrinsic merits rather than that of their meritricious surroundings. It must not be forgotten, however, that he would then, in many instances, be subjected to a never - ending course of " na^gin 0 "," and it may be remarked that as the constant dropping of water will wear away a stone, so will a nagging woman in the end get pretty much what she wants. 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 snobs, Certainly, it would bo well if means were taken to render women less snobbish than they are, for bad as a male snob is, a female snob is infinitely worse. For one thing, she is more spiteful. It is the wife of G-randee, and not Grandee himself, who has such 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. As for Grandee, if he had only himself to please, he would as soon his daughter were educated with little Miss Haberdasher as with the child of Swindle, the merchant, who has failed once or twice, and Tery neatly diddled the chief bulk of his creditors ; and he only takes action in order that he may hare peace and quietness at his own fireside. Indeed, if lie were left to his own devices, his Gothic barbarity would carry him still further than we have indicated. He would hob-nob with Haberdasher himself, and he would not be at all annoyed if it came to his ears that his wife had been having a friendly gossip with Mrs Haberdasher. But his good lady has too much sense to fall into such an indiscretion as this, and she makes it her business to see that his lax notions do not run away with him. Then, again, it is she, not he, who carefully weighs up all the qualifications and possessions of those persons who are introduced into the house of Grandee. It is she that goes in for making people know their places. It is she who can meet a so called inferior in the street, and gaze at him as if he were a piece of inanimate scnlpture. It is she who can keep would-be upstairs clown. 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 can quietly drop her poor relations because it does not suit her purpose to retain a hold of them, even though, by so doing, she might succeed in helping them up to her own level — she is so afraid of being dragged down to theirs. 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, than 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. Of course, the amount of harm she does is incalculable. It will be then, for those who have charge of the education of women to consider whether it is not time that their policy were revised, and that instead of girls being taught to be snobs they should be taught not to be so. — Liberal Review.