Those elderly men who sit and smoke in the places described as "cosy"
are woeful examples of the effects of our national curse. They are not
riotous; they are only dull, coarse, and silly. Their talk is confused,
dogmatic, and generally senseless; and, when they break out into
downright foulness of speech, their comparatively silent enjoyment of
detestable stories is a thing to make one shiver. Here again
good-fellowship is absent. Comfortable tradesmen, prosperous dealers,
sharp men who hold good commercial situations, meet to gossip and
exchange dubious stories. They laugh a good deal in a restrained way,
and they are apparently genial; but the hard selfishness of all is plain
to a cool observer. The habit of self-indigence has grown upon them
until it pervades their being, and the corruption of the bar subtly
envenoms their declining years. If good women could only once hear an
evening's conversation that passes among these elderly citizens, they
would be a little surprised. Thoughtful ladies complain that women are
not reverenced in England, and Americans in particular notice with
shame the attitude which middle-class Englishmen adopt towards ladies.
If the people who complain could only hear how women are spoken of in
the homes of Jollity, they would feel no more amazement at a distressing
social phenomenon.
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