VULGARITY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9675, 18 October 1909, Page 2

VULGARITY.

ITS ADVANTAGES. Mr Balfour once said, in connection with a pushful politician, that " good taste' is not a habit which can be acquired by industry." That (says a writer in London "Truth") is a very fortunate thing, because it is a habit of which a man may not hope to break himself. It is a habit most pernicious, more clinging than the habit of drink. A drunkard has moments of sobriety, but the man of good taßte never has a holiday at all. It is always with him. The happy freedom of vulgarity shines around him, but he may not grasp it. . This fact is pathetic, and almost tragic. It deprives a. valuable minority of innumerable satisfactions and enjoyments, and endows them with a quantity of distastes and aloofness, unknown to the light heart of the vulgarian. They are wrapped in a cloud, Rke a Greek god visiting earth ; and their neighbours are merely aware of something damp and chilling among them. Unfortunately, the wearer of the cloud cannot disoard it. Mr Balfour might just as truly have said that the habit of vulgarity cannot be acquired by industry. The liappy vulgarian I is born, not made ; and he lives his life surrounded by a thousand joys and ten thousand immunities which have to him the comfortable aspect of matters of course. To take a crude instance: Bread soaked in gravy is delicious to him, while his cloud-wrapped neighbour, if he ever does such a thing, only achieves it by dint of exercising a kind of apologetio temerity. Then there is the question' of speech. .Much of the slang used by vulgarians of every rank is admirable. It goes straight to the point, is short, pithy and vigorous. - It lops off unnecessary syllables, and talks of. "photos" and "invites"; it signs itself "yours affty" or "your affec. friend." \ In the matter of dress, again, how blessed is the vulgarian 1 He, orslio, I has endless opportunities of exercising ; n real love for vulgarity, and enjoying it. From the aniline dyes of the Sun-day-best merino with beads, , to the sprinkling of historic Alencon lace with pieces of coloured glass, or the trimming of an evening dress with tanger* me oranges, there is at each step a chance for the person of good taste to be lacerated and outraged; whereas every one of these occasions is a downright " source of pleasure to the vulgarian. * Or, take the case of the red tie and tartan cummerbund of Brixton. What possibilities of . joy they hold-j--->and share with the too-glossy hat, the too-shiny boots, the too-exotic hole of Piccadilly I t The amusements of the vulgarian are innocent perhaps, but amusing" certainly. His sense of humour has no bearing-rein, and he'd - sit through- " Toddles " with a single-minded . ehr . joyment which makes him* indeed a happy man. Very many vulgar things are intensely amusing, and it is nothing but an annoyance to have/reserves in the very act of enjoying them. Other vulgar * things are also dull, and the nature whi~~ ,can enjoy these because they are vulgar is armed almost impenetrably against boredom. There is also to be considered that most enviable thing— the refinement of vulgarity. To vulgarians who oan compass this, life is indeed varied and interesting, it is gilt-edged — more, it is written with diamonds on gold, and edged with Venetian point. At the wave of the vulgarians wand, fashionsable restaurants became lakes whereon guests dine on gondolas and are given valuable presents; or dogs are given parties, and are hung with iewels; or. one attends at a dressmakers a review of gowns, intended to express various intimate emotions ;■ or a dozen other things may happen,, all equally fascitoatihg. The only conditions are, that the wand must be gold, and the magician vulgar. Then we see the Arabian Nights coming true, with all the freedom of " 'Appy -Y' Amstead," and all its publicity, too. Just as frank vulgarity proclaims its income and its virtues in the best parlour, so does this refinement of vulgarity, in the white and gold "balls" of an expensive hotel, display its wealth and its hospitality. It has onen to it the. fascinating task of unlocking the doors of society by devotion to charity. There is no quicker way of " getting on" than by having the best stall at a smart bazaar, or donating many thousands of pounds to a half-crown public subscription. . . This serves the purpose of pointing out one's wealth and one's good heart at the same time; and a temporary anonymity is, to the comfortably vulgar, a legitimate device for making the sensation greater when all is known. There are many who would love to spend their wealth lavishly, and are restrained by a cowardly fear that it might be vulgar to do so. It is undoubtedly true that one of the most subtle forms of vulgarity is the_fear of being vulgar. In the present day. one might more justly hope to bo vulgar. It is & most valuable quality. It puts one on the winning side at opce. It spares one the annoyance of discovering that there is such a thing as vulgarity, and makes welcome friends, of those who appear to the minority as "outsiders." Existence is not nearly bo joyful to a gentlewoman of refinement as it is to her neighbour who not only enjoys seeing privcate details of her person and dress in print, but sees no reason why she should not pay to have them inserted. A real vulgarity — not the weak imitation of those who have only enough to perceive the dullness of refinement 'and tiy to compass something more "toney," "classy," "stylish,* or " smart," but the real article — saves its happy owner endless disgust and the many discomforts of intolerance; renders it possible, and even pleasant, to conform without self-consciousness to many usages' of society which good taste would render abhorrent; and leaves one at liberty to enjoy a miich longer list of comforts, beginning with food and ending in intellectualj-egions, than there is> space to catalogue.