Page:About people (IA aboutpeople00well).pdf/182

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
176
ABOUT PEOPLE.

by their own experience how much lineage adds to appreciation of good purpose. A high rate of board per day does not give absolution from daily politeness. It is ludicrous to see the perplexity of some one who has paid a big weekly bill for being in, but not of, the crowd, when, suddenly, he discovers that he has missed a social opportunity. "Blue blood" cannot mingle with anything less cerulean; next to belonging to "a family," ranks belonging to the church. A Radical, a Unitarian, a Methodist, a Baptist, is each one degree farther removed than the preceding from the high recognition of society.

Some people are so afraid of being involved that they miss the evolution of themselves. Cosmopolitan or provincial behavior in a hotel is after all each one's own affair, but when the latter extends to the personal relation of a guest to his host it becomes reprehensible. If one is not willing to enlarge his acquaintance he had better never enter society; but, being there, he