dinner, and had taken his siesta; after | dress and unexceptionable manners, whose which he commenced ruminating over the character and resources are such that he events of the day, and then at last thought would be anything but a desirable son-inof his prisoner! He returned to the Abbey at some inconvenience, and set him free with many apologies. Dr. Rimbault's ardor to be shut up in a munimentroom had then quite cooled.

From The 'Pall Mall Gazette. AMERICAN "WATERING-PLACE'

QUAINTANCE.

AC

law. By the word "resources" is meant, in this connection and in this country, his ability to work successfully in business or a profession rather than the present possession of property. This danger, however, is one which is cheerfully and rather recklessly encountered. American parents seem indifferent, as a general rule, to the ancestral antecedents of their sons' or their daughters' future companions, and they are singularly ready to run grave risks, to say the least, as to their personal PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 4. qualifications. There is little restriction, A STRIKING peculiarity of life at Cape therefore, in the formation of new acMay and Long Branch - and these places quaintances at the summer resorts, and may be taken as illustrations of nearly nearly any young gentleman of good manall American resorts except Newport - is ners appearing at one of them is taken up the general absence of even those slight and utilized for the temporary uses of the distinctions which mark the various circles dance and flirtation. In ninety-nine cases of society in the home cities of this coun- in a hundred he is laid aside again at the try. This to a stranger is one of the most end of the season with quite as little cerecurious phases of summer life in America, mony. This process is constantly going and it cannot be understood by the appli- on at all the seaside and mountain resorts. cation of any rules known to the society A stranger would hardly notice it at such of England or the Continent. It is made crowded centres as Cape May and Long possible by a single unwritten law of the Branch. He would find many secluded American social code, which is universally circles, too, among the throngs at these recognized, and the authority of which is places in which very "strict" ideas prevail. rarely, if ever questioned. An acquaint- But these are mere eddies in the genance formed at a watering-place involves eral current of American society. They no obligation of any kind after the end of represent no important class, and may be the season. A lady may dance with a new regarded as individuals only. At either of acquaintance every evening for six weeks these resorts the stranger sees the result; at Long Branch, and a slight passing bow he sees a great conglomerate social mass; in the street is all that the most stringent but he would be confused if he attempted to etiquette requires of her in New York or learn how people have become acquainted Philadelphia during the following winter. with each other who had never met beEven this is given more from that kind- fore; how the most intimate social relaness on which all courtesy is based than tions have come to exist among utter because it is demanded by etiquette; and strangers of the previous week. Let him a gentleman is expected, like the ball- go to the Delaware Water Gap, or Spring room acquaintance of a single evening in Lake, or Brynmaur, or any of the minor England, to await his recognition from resorts within equally easy reach of Philathe lady. This rule is so well established delphia, and he will understand the prochere that even such people as would like ess in a day. He will see a young man to disobey it and take advantage of an ac- arrive, for instance, at a small hotel in the quaintance formed at a summer resort are afternoon, well dressed and of good manentirely overruled, and seem to be per- ners. The new visitor will smoke a cigar, fectly harmless. Under this law of the offer another gentleman a light, exchange Medes and Persians — for such it has be- a few words, drop into a chat play a come the most careful father or mother game of billiards, perhaps. There is sees no danger in the formation of "pro- dancing-music in the drawing-room during miscuous" acquaintances during the sum- the evening. There are two, perhaps mer, so far as mere social entanglements three, ladies for every gentleman. are concerned. The only serious danger are to be formed for a quadrille. The is of the kind which the otherwise harm- ladies' curiosity has already been piqued . less detrimental "introduces into En- as to who the young stranger is, and what glish society. A daughter may find herself he is like. His cigar-acquaintance apinterested in a young man of pleasing ad-proaches him: "Dance?—good. By

Sets

:

One

the way, what did you say your name was? |bility for the extension of hospitality; nor Oh, yes; I'll introduce you. Mr. can any number of valuable letters take Miss Where is papa? the English the place of the universal welcome -pro reader naturally asks; he is talking pol-tem. extended to the stranger. itics or business with a friend of two hours' young Englishman of my acquaintance, standing on the piazza, and will probably whose face and manners are in themselves go to bed at ten o'clock without disturbing a passport, surprised me the other evening the rest of the family. And mamma? at a summer hotel where we were remainShe is sitting in a corner of the drawing- ing but a single day. We had arrived room chatting with another matron. It about two hours before, and were watching may or may not occur to her that she has a few ladies and gentlemen who were never before seen the gentleman her dancing and chatting in the drawing-room. daughter is dancing with. In any event, My companion left my side, addressed one the evening is supposed to count only for of the ladies pleasantly but respectfully, itself, and the partner of the dance is a seemed to enter into a conversation, and temporary convenience, having no neces- presently became her partner in a quadrille. sary connection with any future social re- When we afterwards met I asked him how lations. As to the young man himself, he he had managed to walk so quietly over becomes one of the party from that mo- the few impediments which even I had ment, and is depended upon by the young always found. "Oh," he answered, "I ladies as an attendant in the drawing-room, told her I was English and a great way on pleasure excursions, and at other times. from home, and had no acquaintances By similar easy processes the acquaint- here and she took me up in a matronly ances of families are brought about. A sort of way, as if she felt it her duty to few words between the fathers or between make me as comfortable as possible. I the wives, a look and a smile between the often do that in America, you know, at a daughters, and friendships warm enough summer resort." This, of course, is an for the purposes of summer society are extreme case: it implies tact and a very formed at once. Personal congeniality is respectful manner on the part of the genthe only consideration among the ladies; tleman; and it could only happen, among politics and business are enough to inter- people that can be called members of est the gentlemen in each other. All that good society here, at a small place where we have thus seen in a small hotel goes on the dangers of imposition by adventurers continually at Long Branch and Cape May, could never occur to the mind, as at Cape though the simple original processes are May or Long Branch. While, however, not so readily observed. The one thing the proceeding is more direct than an that makes them possible, as I have said, American gentleman could safely venture is the universally recognized law, that upon, and the lady's approval depends on watering-place acquaintances" do not a good-natured recognition of a stranger's "count" after the season is over, except position, it involves no social principle when both sides desire them to be perma- which is not recognized here in the summer season. Except among that "strict" few, representing no general class, to whom I have already referred, the ladies most likely to resent such a direct selfpresentation on the part of a polite foreign gentleman belong to a lower rather than an upper order of American society — to that class who feel obliged to follow the "rules" of etiquette, without trusting themselves to make their own exceptions as circumstances may suggest.

nent.

It is on account of this peculiar freedom of social intercourse, this temporary throwing off of restraints considered imperative at other seasons, that an American summer resort may be considered one of the pleasantest places in the world for the casual tourist. The way is even more open, if possible, to an English visitor than an American, the native ladies and gentlemen feeling a certain responsi

PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY
LITTELL & GAY, BOSTON.

TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.

For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage.

An extra copy of THE LIVING AGE is sent gratis to any one getting up a club of Five New Subscribers. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & GAY.

Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents.

To what height may not Heaven's high favor It was ages ago, and mankind, we are told,

I

From The Edinburgh Review.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.*

Whatever record leap to light

of the Medway, still remains the family seat. As the playmate, friend, and ambassador of Edward VI., a firm Protestant, and son-in-law of the attainted Duke of Northumberland, Sir Henry Sidney could scarcely expect to retain the favor of such a monarch as Mary Tudor. It speaks as highly for her wisdom as for his integrity and loyalty that he continued throughout her reign to escape molestation on account of his faith, and to discharge important functions of State. Philip II. endorsed the good-will of his consort so far as to bestow his name upon the Sidneys' heir, little foreseeing that the object of this honor was destined to prove, till death, his most determined opponent.

He never shall be shamed. THE world looks with natural suspicion The eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney, upon the reputation of a man equally illus- representative of a knightly house, which trious for genius and for virtue. In its traced its descent from a chamberlain of daily experience it does not find the great- Henry II., and of Lady Mary Dudley, est statesmen especially immaculate, the daughter of John, Duke of Northumbergreatest poets free from sordid aims, and land, Philip was born on the 29th of Nowe are apt to regard as exaggerated state-vember, 1554, at Penshurst Hall, in Kent, ments the existence of such lusus nature which, pleasantly emparked on the banks in former ages. In many minds, the semblance of partiality in a recorded verdict is sufficient to create reaction, and predisposes them indifferently to ostracise an Aristides or rehabilitate a Henry VIII. and a Robespierre. But there are a few exceptional reputations that have not thus tempted the impeachment of posterity, and have withstood successfully "the fierce light" of antiquarian research which has discovered blemishes on escutcheons long thought to be spotless. The immunity enjoyed by those of whom we speak is probably due to their abounding and transparent humanity. They have never assumed to be faultless, but, in a better sense than Iago's, carried their hearts upon their sleeves "for daws to peck at." No records of the boy's precocity are The good in them has so plainly exceed- extant. We first hear of him in 1564, ed the evil, that the enthusiastic praise when Sir Henry, who had been retained of their contemporaries does not seem in his honors by Elizabeth, and subseunreal, and they have been enshrined quently deputed to the presidency of in the national Walhalla with scarcely Wales, entered him at the grammar school a dissentient voice. Among such paragons Englishmen almost unanimously have numbered Sir Philip Sidney. Repeated biographies of him have appeared, all more or less marked by research, two of recent date being compiled from the ample materials in our public archives. Nothing of importance is henceforth likely to be discovered respecting his life or character, and the poet's prophecy as to the fame of a modern hero may be applied with still greater confidence to his :

of Shrewsbury, within easy reach of his seat of government at Ludlow Castle. On the same day was entered Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke, the boy's playfellow, the man's companion and biographer, who wrote as his own best epitaph that he was "the friend of Sir Philip Sidney." To him we owe a significant notice of Philip's pupilage, as having been marked by rare quickness of apprehension and gravity of manner. The youth's temporary delicacy of health is attested by a special license to eat meat in Lent, which was procured for him a few years later by his uncle, the Earl of Leicester. His progress in study at the age of twelve appears from the receipt of a Latin and a French letter, acknowledged in his father's reply, dated 1566. Read beside the record of the son's life, the father's counsels have the semblance of prophecy: