SMART SOCIETY

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4396, 29 June 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

SMART SOCIETY

The so-called "smart set” has earned a very unenviable reputation for itself. It is a canker upon our high society and is a threat against it, for the world 'cannot be expected to distinguish very clearly between the members *of the smart set and those of the good set. The former are frivolous, irresponsible, self-seeking, and artificial. To be smart in dress, equipage and all externals is the chief aim of their lives. The man is a sleek creature, splen* didly groomed,'dressed by the most expen* eive tailor, hosier, hatter, "glover, on all of whoia he preys, for the only debts of honour" recognised by his peculiar code •re those made by betting or gaming. To pay hie tailor fie the reverse of "smart." To be dunned is part of his distinction. To raipe money at impossible rates of in* ferest, with the view of ultimately "doing the money lenders," is but an ordinary line of his chart of life. To get all the money he can from his "governor” *or his widowed mother is part of his poor little plan. It is very smart to write a deuce of a letter to the "old boy" or the mater, which has a goodly cheque *for the result. So long as one does oneself well in every way, what matters it if they go short "at home, if the trip go long looked forward to by the girls has to bo given up •or the "cure" recommended by the doctor for the father or mother js abandoned on account of his pressing requirements?* It would not be in the least smart to consider such circumstances as these. No other fellow does. Why should ho? 'So he pays the most 'Dressing of his creditors a little on account. He could not be guilty of such a hnurueois idea ’as that of paving off his debts with the money sent him for that jxnress Purpose. Thev are n o t "debts of honour.’ Whv should he trouble? It will all come right in the end. The tailor fellows can wait. The moth woman is a meet companion for this butterfly man. She lives for dress and show, to peacock in the pant and hav« her gowns described tin the columns of the society papers. She may have begun her social life as a pleasant, good-hearted girl, but in the smart set souls shrink, hearts are occupied with self and minds drift vaguely upon th© shallows *Meanness' is rampant. A woman who *asoires to be smart will do anything for a new frock. She will hob-and-oob with her milliner, flatter her, cajole her, borrow her jewels, and accept a loan if the Battery has been ikiUul enough'to elicit th» offer. If the milliner should happen *to be a man. she tries the effect of her beaux yeux noon him when there is ‘any mention’ of Who can gang© the depth Of degradation that smart women hove undergone when their uncontrolled 'desire for finerv has plunged them into debt and serious difficulty.

Such a woman win laugn contemptuously at Jane or Mary in her Sunday best; but in what essential is she superior to the little serving maid who spends every farthing on her clothes? Her taste in dress is often no better. Her discretion is on *v par with that of the foolish J girl who spends her all upon her wardrobe, and in principle sho is possibly fa r inferior. What is the life of the moth woman? Hven if sho be rich and have no financial cares, what does she live for? To be ad» mired. To enjoy J hcrself. To go to all the smart places. To have her toillettes quoted. To have nice things to eat, a costly little pet dog, plenty of flowers, and the best of bon-bons. But there is a dark side to the life. It is X® a lousy. If some others of the moth women adorers, finer jewels, greater "fun." and are more *often mentioned in the papers, then jealousy grips her, hard and cruel. That is w 'hy those pretty faces in the park are far from happy faces. •’Life passes like an empty dream, and what is there tn remember when it is gone? V few social successes, and many a bitter injustice dono to others, for duties cannot be neglected without involving hardships to others, to children, to servants, to almost all of those 'workers whom the smart woman regards os merely so much machinery to make life smooth and beautiful for her. —"Daily News." k