BOUNDERS OF BOTH SEXES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2303, 21 April 1898, Page 50

BOUNDERS OF BOTH SEXES.

No doubt the B; under existed before his name flashed out of the darkness to illumine a world wanting a word to identify a moral state hitherto lacking complete verbal recognition. There are a good many Bounder ia Greek, lestendar* histoxv^ aiui Boms

was full of tptm. Thetsites, sen of AgriuS, the most impudent talker among the Greeks before Troy, seems to have been a typical example of the ' class. Achilles slew Mat. _ In the Victorian era the Bounder livea happily, often prosperously, and not infrequently he marries a rich widow. 'There is no recorded case of bia massacre.

I cner^Jy ment?oc3d Tfiersifces as fi^idenc« of .tha Bounder's aci'lquity. I am afraid some of the Crusaders were bad Bounders, too. For what is the Bounder 1 Is he not the outward and visible sign of the inward and sjdrlxia; J&ck of the gentler graces, once cU*p::ue<i necessary ingredients in tha character of the man or woman of the world 1 The state is easily recognisable, but like not a few unpleasant gases in the region of shemistry, it is singularly difficult to analyse. It is perhaps somewhat of an exaggdrttt-cn to declare that ererj Blunder kDOws annf fc«,r when he meets him, yet we, even the youngest among a?, have heard him abese tua very type of which he is a striking example. Does not the impact of one Bounder against another often form the delight of the modest social observer ? How delightful ifc is to hear both bitterly complain of the shock, whilst each recogniseß the other's claim to the titte 1

We live ia an sge of progress, and we have reached a pointr in our social evolution when the fenaaJe JBaGnder has become not only possible, Vml, by her frequency, tolerable. Once those Koisy, " pushful," trampling, tactless qualilies which are the superficial mark of r our modern fe.vp<» were confined exclnnvsl? co *.bs mslo. T<je ffypsle was not ripe for the vu}gar crown. Sotc, ala? ! that day is now long pai-aed.

With a blaafaing trepidation and the sense of impending puii^ehTaenfe, I here assert that, if an accurate census of BouDders could ba takec. — and, upoo my honour, I don't believe rhe thing's Impossible I— there t?culd bs fouai') hexe in London as nx&nj wouisd as men included. Ard whetr is curioa* — biologists should ba grateful fey the phenomsnon — is that male and femel« B-unders rarely marry. IE they did the? wyu'il ciu^b ost »')! other types.

As a rule, the male Bounder finds some modes!; and chiitnaing girl, wsth a dowry (unlesn the widow aforesaid f.aiim to L'is let), wMl&t th?. female generally captures so her how and spear a genttomaa of quk'fe breeding and letiricg habits. For, however reluctant we may be to admit it, tha Bounder ia usually a worldly success ; as, when we consider his peculiarly mutsdane origin antf ambitions, be ceitaiaJyonghfc to be. No-: only do Bcuucera icske tLs besfc mssrlsßomaJ aUi&uoas, bat they actually push thanwdves into prominent and weliadvers.ii.ed p ! .icea in .the public service; they are na thick as blapfcber'ries in all the Parliaments of the ' world! nol.excluding our owji veaerable iaatilution. ""\'\ V But why do the Bounders -of both sexes prosper, sines v?a "all" apparently hate them wo Utterly? The answer' musfe' be sought in Natural History. They r thrive, because they are tbe '-fittest."; they are, that is to say, equipped with just the sort of social tooth and claw necessary for fighting one's w-ay bo the front rank. There they wax far, arirt kick. '

SUll, fevp.tt the Bounofer should have bic dee. He is not necessarily liombered amotig tbt; kicked. It is possible for him to become a, bishop cr a religious novelist, or the .fc-tmder of Bouse blatant new form of faitb. Aad since be is thus permitted to flourish among up, one may try to believe that it must loe fw softie wlss em). oJ Nature — Critic.