THE SMART SET.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 6, 23 August 1911, Page 8

THE SMART SET.

ENGLISH CLERGYMAN’S SATIRE. 1 The Rev. Fredric C. Spurr, Baptist minister, of Melbourne, in a letter to the London “Christian World” of June 21st, says;— “Wo are in danger of developing bogus aristocracy in the Commonwealth. A ‘smart sot’ is forming which is distinguished for nothing but the possesion of money and amaziffg vanity. These people conveniently forget their humble origin. They assume important airs which ill-fit thcAi. They gather themselves together into a close corporation from which the unmoneyed arc excluded. When they marry their weddings are described as ‘fashionable’ weddings. A mod from Government House is their beatitude. An English title is worshipped by them. Some, whose not is courted, are not very prompt in paying their tradesmen’s hills until a writ is threatened, but all this makes no difference (o. the new ‘smart set,’ whose solo ambition is to bo ranked amongst the elite. It is all very comic to an Englishman, tills bid for place and fame. Aristocratic pretence in England is bad enough, whore family pedigrees co.unt for something; it is vulgar here, where many of the pretenders have no pedigree at idl. Australia has the chance to maintain a pure and wholesome democracy of the highest type; it will be a pity if she forfeits it.”