Worldly Ways and Byways | Page 3

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Worldly Ways and Byways - Eliot Gregory. 1899 edition. Scanned and
proofed by David Price, email [email protected] ***

Worldly Ways and Byways

A Table of Contents
To the READER
1. Charm 2. The Moth and the Star 3. Contrasted Travelling 4. The
Outer and the Inner Woman 5. On Some Gilded Misalliances 6. The
Complacency of Mediocrity 7. The Discontent of Talent 8. Slouch 9.
Social Suggestion 10. Bohemia 11. Social Exiles 12. "Seven Ages" of
Furniture 13. Our Elite and Public Life 14. The Small Summer Hotel
15. A False Start 16. A Holy Land 17. Royalty at Play 18. A Rock
Ahead 19. The Grand Prix 20. "The Treadmill" 21. "Like Master Like
Man" 22. An English Invasion of the Riviera 23. A Common Weakness
24. Changing Paris 25. Contentment 26. The Climber 27. The Last of
the Dandies 28. A Nation on the Wing 29. Husks 30. The Faubourg St.
Germain 31. Men's Manners 32. An Ideal Hostess 33. The Introducer
34. A Question and an Answer 35. Living on Your Friends 36.
American Society in Italy 37. The Newport of the Past 38. A Conquest

of Europe 39. A Race of Slaves 40. Introspection

To the Reader
THERE existed formerly, in diplomatic circles, a curious custom, since
fallen into disuse, entitled the Pele Mele, contrived doubtless by some
distracted Master of Ceremonies to quell the endless jealousies and
quarrels for precedence between courtiers and diplomatists of
contending pretensions. Under this rule no rank was recognized, each
person being allowed at banquet, fete, or other public ceremony only
such place as he had been ingenious or fortunate enough to obtain.
Any one wishing to form an idea of the confusion that ensued, of the
intrigues and expedients resorted to, not only in procuring prominent
places, but also in ensuring the integrity of the Pele Mele, should
glance over the amusing memoirs of M. de Segur.
The aspiring nobles and ambassadors, harassed by this constant
preoccupation, had little time or inclination left for any serious pursuit,
since, to take a moment's repose or an hour's breathing space was to
risk falling behind in the endless and aimless race. Strange as it may
appear, the knowledge that they owed place and preferment more to
chance or intrigue than to any personal merit or inherited right, instead
of lessening the value of the prizes for which all were striving, seemed
only to enhance them in the eyes of the competitors.
Success was the unique standard by which they gauged their fellows.
Those who succeeded revelled in the adulation of their friends, but
when any one failed, the fickle crowd passed him by to bow at more
fortunate feet.
No better picture could be found of the "world" of to-day, a perpetual
Pele Mele, where such advantages only are conceded as we have been
sufficiently enterprising to obtain, and are strong or clever enough to
keep - a constant competition, a daily steeplechase, favorable to daring
spirits and personal initiative but with the defect of keeping frail

humanity ever on the qui vive.
Philosophers tell us, that we should seek happiness only in the calm of
our own minds, not allowing external conditions or the opinions of
others to influence our ways. This lofty detachment from environment
is achieved by very few. Indeed, the philosophers themselves (who may
be said to have invented the art of "posing") were generally as vain as
peacocks, profoundly pre-occupied with the verdict of their
contemporaries and their position as regards posterity.
Man is born gregarious and remains all his life a herding animal. As
one keen observer has written, "So great is man's horror of being alone
that he will seek the society of those he neither likes nor respects
sooner than be left to his own." The laws and conventions that govern
men's intercourse have, therefore, formed a tempting subject for the
writers of all ages. Some have labored hoping to reform their
generation, others have written to offer solutions for life's many
problems.
Beaumarchais, whose penetrating wit left few subjects untouched,
makes his Figaro put the subject aside with "Je me presse de rire de tout,
de peur d'etre oblige d'en pleurer."
The author of this little volume pretends to settle no disputes, aims at
inaugurating no reforms. He has lightly touched on passing topics and
jotted down, "to point a moral or adorn a tale,"