The 'Smart Set'

New Zealand Tablet, 13 September 1906, Page 23

The ' Smart Set'

Father Bernard Vaughan' is still fly-blistering ' the vices and follies -<>£< the - '"smart set.' ' A genial, - giddy youth, with Tgrcat expectations,' - said^he in a recent sermon, ' has not much chance of holding his own when set upon^by fast, smart women. Some women of the set to which I refer seem to combine the savagery of the animal with the cunning of the devil. Of one, thing, any man who ventures into the society of the fast, smart set may -be sure, and that is, if he goes into it with any money-he will come out of it without any.' And Lthen he ' said things ' about fashionable -' girl gamblers,' the moral ruin that overtakes so- many of them at the hands of ' devils in . disgjrise,' and the ■'sewer of. putridfilthiness ' in which their grasping after gold is carried on. . Jt is indeed a dark and terrible picture. He then showed how~~the betting mania had seized - upon every walk of society, and _ pointed out the distinction between the legitimate and th-e illegitimate resort to games of chance and skill. -' I have been told,' he added, through - the pages of the press that ' he wanted to. stop, not bridge only, but everything, that put merriment into life—for instance, elegance in dress, dainties in food, all diversions in- the week, with all recreation on Sunday. ' I state emphatically,' said Father Vaughan,- • I want to do' nothing of the, sort. On the contrary, I like elegance in dress, but not extravagance, I like delicacies in food, but, not dainties only. I like amusement in the week, but not' till work has earned it, and I like relaxation on - Sunday, btot not till God is worshipped. "In fact, . so"~ strongly do I feel about Sunday recreation that, ' iii spite of what some will say, as soon as my sermon - ends, I am going to* take some 200 costers.with other poor brother friends to spend the afternoon in the country. But this is very different from' spending . one's life in a riot of pleasure —gone mad. You can no more live a human life on mere .pleasure . than you can on whipped* "cream, and the so-called" smart people who spend their time and wealth picking pleasure out of it would in my judgment be better employed picking- oakum. They form our -worst class of tramps. Father Vaughan exhorted his hearers -to tear out of their' being, no matter ' whatsit might cost, that special- evil thing, be it betting, be it drugs, or be it sensuality, which was spoiling if not - -ruining life.' _ - -