THAT “EXQUISITE SENSE.”

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 2790, 30 May 1921, Page 3

THAT “EXQUISITE SENSE.”

GOOD TASTE THE SOCIAI TA USMAN.

(By Agnes Egert-on Castle)

There are certain attributes which are as the bloom on our human qualities; delicate, impalpable!; a sort of gloss and rounding of the character, which makes social intercourse a thing of charm. Good taste is one of these. It may be partial, as affecting merely our adornment, our surroundings, our manners; or complete integral, emanating from the whole being. For a woman, especially, to have good taste—the untaught, instinctive good taste which belongs to no class nor no age—is an immense asset to herself and to others. She will k -env how to make the best, of her own appearance, of any situation in which she finds herself; agreeable in every aspect, she will Le soiight after by others. flood taste is not the prerogative of those who have the most means for gratifying their individual fancy. And it 6 is not necessarily the parvenu a ion© who fails in good taste,, . WHAT GOOD TASTE JS. The daughter of ;‘a hundred earls’\ who makes doorhandles out of antique watches . the peer who devises startling effects of electric light in his baths, bv which the unhappy visitor finds himself suddenly illuminated : the decadent who crowns a b ack drawing-room with a frieze of horror by the latest of the “young ferocities” (one such I have heard <1 escribed by a celebrated art-critic as j “the drunken maunderingsi of a ' hydroceplialous idiot”), these are aIL T’o endeavour to “stagger the citizen"—as the French say —b3» r osten- | ration audacity, or the utmost re- ■ finement, of extravagance .is to clash with the true dictates of the desirable quality. Definitions are always difficu t things, but it may broadly be said that what is inappropriate', out oi place, is also out of- taste. Good taste is really an exquisite' sense of fitness ; the measure' which 1 the ( reeks placed above all other ; virtue-: or. rather, within the limits of which ,acording to them, cvercy virtue, every emotion, every manifestation should be contained. As tlie artist is born, not mad*', one may say that good taste is a natural gift. Certainly it can never bn inculcated. I have known a child who, before it could speak, always rejected tin* double flower lor the single one OI TR A f 1 KO l S F A SH I O N S. 1 oned saw an adorable little boy of four years old offered a plate of peaches upon which Some one had placed a sprig of honeysuckle. The

child took the honeysuckle. Here ■was an impulse of good taste that went deeper than the mere artistic selection. He did not want to look greedy—little bic-ssoih of delicate feeling that he was!

'•'he greatest gentlemen I have ever known is an old brocinmaker who lives on our moors, and can neither nad nor wri .e. His manners in thivr i>erfect simplicity are adapted to every occasion and every society and spring in their sweet urbanity from the heart. Such and such a young woman who has perhaps only as njany shillings r.o spend as her millionairess neighbour has five pound notes. will contrive to look a hundred times more attractive, in the black gown that does hard service, than her wealthier .ester in the last Paris scream.

Indeed, it is perhaps 'true to say that, nowadays especially, the last scream is seldom in good taste. If women could really see themselves as others see them. surely these exaggerations of short skirts, and pink stockings, this outrageous decolleitage, this general cceciikMoity at the expense of suitability, art, aud modesty would be abandoned.