EVOLUTION OF THE JOHNNY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIV, Issue XXIV, 16 June 1900, Page 1132

EVOLUTION OF THE JOHNNY.

That hero of song, anecdote and epithet who is variously known as “I he .Johnny” and “The Chappie” comes of a long' and not undistinguished line of dandies. The Johnny must not be confounded with the Masher, who was a counterfeit of the ideai fop. nor with the Cane-sucker who is a witling, often meekly dressed, nor with the New York Dude who. if we may accept the testimony of American plays ami newspapers concerning him. is the most vulgar and preposterous humbug in existence. Johnny is “fast” in a sense—and he likes personal splendour: but he is not vulgar. He is generally a gentleman and his tastes are fastidious. His ostentation is not loud: it becomes him. His is not the loud laugh that proclaims the vacant mind: he is complacent but not assertive. It is a libel to say that his dramatic discrimination does not rise above the level of the latest Burlesque or the Music Hail. He is more astute than many imagine and his taste more refined. He enjoys the Music Hall and the Burlesque, undoubtedly: but so do other people saving and excepting— well, better mention no names. His follies are mild compared with those of his predecessors: one of the most serious is extravagance. Even in this respect, he does not go to the insane lengths of those exemplars of elegance who basked in the favour of the Prince Regent. But we are mainly concerned with Johnny's evolution.—of the metamorphosis through which his species has passed till the brilliant personage of to-day was produced. We need not begin quite at the beginning. and take a line through the sable dandy who struts before the enraptured gaze of his acquaintances arrayed in an old red tunic —and nothing else but vanity. We take our cue concerning Johnny—as we take it concerning other aspects of humanity—from Shakespeare. He has given us “Hotspur's Description of a Fop." The bluff Hotspur tells how. “when the tight was done" —

Came there a certain lord. neat, trimly drest. Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin, new reap’d. Show’d like a stubble land at harvest home. He was p rfumed like a milliner. And twix’t his finger & his thumb he held A pouncet box, which ever and anon lie gavt- his nose, and took't away again.

This we may accept as a description of Johnny's prototype. But Johnny has improved since then. He has retained his prototype’s liking for a smooth chin and he probably uses Thingumy’s Soap—but he is not perfumed like a milliner and he does not take snutf — a habit to which his species were addicted for centuries. Neither does the epithet "popinjay" apply to him: nor would he object even to a funeral coming between the wind and his nobility. Johnny is a distinct improvement on his protot y pe. The dandyism of the Cavaliers probably did much to raise the dander of the' Puritans. Thus is the gallant of the 17th century described by one of the latter: —"His mind is small and set

upon knots and roses, jaggings, and taggings, bordering* and trimmings." With such costume possibilities that may well be regarded as a splendid epoch in the history of the Dandy. Alas, before the century closed, there was a woful retrogression in style and manners, for we have contemporary evidence that men of fashion then considered it chic to comb their perukes in public. They plied their large wags with the comb with a preposterous assumption of grace in the street, in the theatre, and at select gatherings. Strange infatuation that could regard the rasping of artificial hair as an insinuating achievement. Dandyism, foppery, or what you will, was ebullient and Protean in

the 18th century, which may, indeed, be regarded as a transition period. At last, the modes in elegance and taste were set by the Marcaronis, who were really gentlemen of birth and culture —gentlemen who had travelled. Their distinguishing costume included jacket, waistcoat and small clothes, cut to fit the person as closely as possible, and a very small cocked hat. This tiny hat surmount-

cd a tasteful hirsute arrangement, for an immense knot of artificial hair jutted out from under it behind. Needless to say, the Macaronis were mercilessly lampooned—has not the present day Johnny his detractors?— but the fashion they set was generally adopted, and then the initiators, like wise men. dropped it. But the Macaronis did not a little to refine the manners of an acre which was

more robust than polite. We have spoken of the Prince Regent’s satellites. We cannot speak as favourably of them as of the Macaronis. They were artificial and insincere, without one generous redeeming feature: their wild extravagances cannot be considered as such. Their stock-in-trade consisted of bows and smirks and leers and sneers and affectations of speech. In

its decadence the type of fine gentleman they introduced was an exasperating line. Johnny does not exasperate. for he is not siiperciliotis and he would laugh at “deportment” as much as anybody. Years rolled on. and it seemed as if British dandyism was going from bad to worse. The prospect was depressing when Lord Dundreary ism was the ideal of foppery an ideal composed of Purgatorial whiskers (meaning as regards the shuddery effect produced upon tin* beholder); of a single eye-glass, a vacant stare, and a drawl or a lisp. When that type disappeared with obloquy it almost seemed as if nothing would replace it. and as if ridicule had hilled dandyism altogether. A specious creature styled “the Exquisit •“ an addled recrudescence of Dundrearvism tried to postin'** itself into approval. but effaced itself before the stern spirit of repression. At last there arose, like a Phoenix from the ashes of defunct dandyism, tin* British Johnny, tie peerless, tin* unique. If he has faults these do not include posturing, or simpering, or mincing, or stuttering or capering. In faultless evening dress, with calm, self-possessed manner, innocent of \<*r\ gross dissipations. In* represents the spirit of the times. He is too much of a gentleman to roar choruses in cider cellars, too much of a num to wrench knockers if there Im* an\ now and too good a citizen to pick quarrels with tin* police. What nation can product* Johnnv's e<pial .’ None. Several. including \merica and France, have tried, but have been unable to conceal failure e\en from themselves. We are proud of Johnny. His international supremacy reflects bistre upon us others.