ARISTOCRATS “OBSOLETE” IN BRITAIN

Evening Star, Issue 20720, 17 February 1931, Page 11

ARISTOCRATS “OBSOLETE” IN BRITAIN

THE DECAY OF SNOBBERY if we are to believe some German observers the only persons _ who continue to think that there is an aristocracy in England are Americans. These German commentators concede that many Germans also are still unenlightened about what they call the “ detay of snobbery ” in England. But they claim at the same time that the Germans are learning faster than the Americans. If you hear a young woman talking of “ the British aristocracy,” theysay, you will know that she is an American, because only Americans adhere to that phrase about a class as “ dead as the kings of ancient Egypt.” The very hright-minded discoverer of this alleged fact is Kurt Von Stutterheim, who carries on his argument in the ‘ Berliner Tageblatt ’ as follows: —

“ Characterisations of this sort are quite out of vogue among English people. The use of such terms is accounted bad taste, and the Americans who use tbem are assumed to be snobs. Quite impossible , socially is the individual who manifests curiosity regarding the rank into which the wife of Lora So-and-So was born. Many a_ Prussian officer has found this out to his cost. 3 Germans left over from the days of the old imperial system are much like Americans in their misconception of English class distinctions. Still, Germans do seem to learn, but the Americans do not. Here are differentiations unintelligible, it seenis, in Boston, New York, and Chicago:

“ An Englishman may be Sir This and his wife may he Lady That, and yet belong to tho most clearly defined middle class. On‘the other hand, an Englishman may have no ‘ handle ’ to his name, the family to which he belongs may never have had a member with any sort of title, and yet he and they will belong to the ‘ upper ’ classes. Even money, although an important factor, is Jess decisive than is ordinarily assumed bv Americans and Germans, to say nothing of education and culture, on the basis of which no assumptions may be made. . “The main distinction is drawn through the medium of such things as mode of life, manners, and perhaps chiefly speech. The subtlety manifested by the Englishman in the use of his mother tongue is one of the surprises of the national character. “ In England it is possible to determine literally from a man’s own lips to which class-ho belongs. “ A breath of Cockney si ill ices to show that papa did business in Whitechapel. This in certain circumstances can bo allowed for, and it may even inspire respect for tho self-made .man. Unpardonable, on the other hand, is the * genteelisin ’ comprising the most dangerous pitfall into which the socially ambitious may ho betrayed in England. ‘ Genteelism ’ is the effort to become choice and select, and at the same tunc to Speak jo such a JIM S§ Sft®.

been brought up to or as is not habitual to one through training aud education. “A false step is taken when one speaks of a male as a gentleman or of a female as a lady instead of saying man or woman. Another blunder is_ to speak of an officer instead of saying simply soldier. If you step on a lady’s toe and say ‘ pardon ’ instead of ‘ I’m sorry,’ if you say * serviette ’ instead of ‘ napkin,’ or if you talk about sending a * bouquet ’ instead of ‘ flowers, you won't be asked again. For you will have offended against the supremo law of good society in England, which is to be simple, not to adorn your speech with foreign phrases. • “ The English Court sets a good example in not emphasising social distinctions, in closing the eyes, and, even more, the ears to them. The Koyal Family has indeed its circle of intimate friends. Yet never in England—as used to be done once at Berlin and Vienna and Prague—would a genealogical search be made out of one s eligibility for presentation at Court. “He who is exclusive, as a witty Englishman once said, runs serious risk of having in the end to associate only with tiresome people. “ As a result of these things there is to-day in England no Court society, no Fauborg, no Potsdam, or, if there be any region corresponding, its doors are not barricaded.”