Whole circles
will go on assuring each other how clever Miss So-and-So is, or,
how beautiful they think someone else. Not because these good
people are any cleverer, or more attractive than their neighbors,
but simply because it is in the air to have these opinions about
them. To such an extent does this hold good, that certain persons
are privileged to be vulgar and rude, to say impertinent things and
make remarks that would ostracize a less fortunate individual from
the polite world for ever; society will only smilingly shrug its
shoulders and say: "It is only Mr. So-and-So's way." It is useless
to assert that in cases like these, people are in possession of
their normal senses. They are under influences of which they are
perfectly unconscious.
Have you ever seen a piece guyed? Few sadder sights exist, the
human being rarely getting nearer the brute than when engaged in
this amusement. Nothing the actor or actress can do will satisfy
the public. Men who under ordinary circumstances would be
incapable of insulting a woman, will whistle and stamp and laugh,
at an unfortunate girl who is doing her utmost to amuse them. A
terrible example of this was given two winters ago at one of our
concert halls, when a family of Western singers were subjected to
absolute ill-treatment at the hands of the public. The young girls
were perfectly sincere, in their rude way, but this did not prevent
men from offering them every insult malice could devise, and making
them a target for every missile at hand.
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