THE SUPERIOR PERSON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 14 July 1925, Page 2

THE SUPERIOR PERSON

(By Faith Foster)

Every age has its affectations. The Victorians suffered from the ‘super-sen-sitives’ who swooned in tlieir midst on the slightest provocation; the Edwardians had their wasp-waisted girls who crooked little fingers over teacup handles and minced their words’ and pursed their lips; we, for our sins, have with ug the superior young person, who is almost, boo ineffably conscious of her owiT mental elevation to have any use for anyone who is not a member of her own particular set. Superiority has, of course, always been the.bane of a certain stratum of society of every age, but in this ago in particular does it appear to be a perfect cult. The girls who affect it can bear remarkably little cross-examination. If, when they tell you that they find William Blake quite too wonderful, or that ‘there is nothing on earth to come up to Proust’s prose’, 3'ou ask for specific instances, you will soon discover just how deep the matter goes. It is the easiest thing imaginable to tear off the mask, hut it will be donned again the moment your back is turned.

You can generally know the superior person by her garb. Hair severely part ed down the middle, and gathered in a tight knot at the nape of the neck, a black felt hat from Montmartre .black cloth capo, and a pair of broad brogue shoes with worsted stockings—all these are infallible signs and portents. But he not dismayed by them. They mean remarkably little. For the superior person i® not a real person at all. She is just, a fiction materialised hv the brain of the modern girl. And she will eventually turn into quite an ordinary' individual.