Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on January 5, 1931.
THIS MODERN WORLD
(Reg. U.S. Pat. Off)
A Daily Department Devoted to Fashion, Decorations and Social Customs. News of Things Which Contribute to Gracious and Alert Living
Resolutions in the 1931 Manner
If ever a waning year inspired one to make resolutions, the last few hours of 1930 should have found us all pledging madly to lead better lives! We aren’t going to embarrass you by asking whether you made resolves, and if so, how goes it? Most of ours are broken, too. But looking back on the recently deceased twelvemonth, it strikes us that we learned a few good lessons which could tide us over into this new one. A few notes for our appendix to the book of etiquette, modes and manners or whatever your personal term for it is, are here jotted down.
For instance, take snobbery. A distasteful term which received a popular jolt when gentile poverty captured the ranks of our best people. The deflating of stocks deflated a great number of egos simultaneously and brought a lot of self-styled snobs back to normal. It became smart to admit economies, it took the chic from extravagance and it restored individuality to a great many. Simplicity has now become a fetish, snobbishness a lamentable acquisition.
You could add paragraphs to your book about the return of nicer manners. Attribute it to changing fashions or what you will, but the fact remains that good manners are once again counting for something. After giving frankness and freedom a free rein for over a decade, the glamour has worn offーthe crudities show up like tarnish. Children have ceased to be amusing in precocity, adults have become stupid who stoop to crassness. It is like warming oneself before a glowing fire to have soft phrases fall upon the car againーflattering to have little niceties revived.
The edge has worn off boredom, too. You don’t see the modern woman’s face overcast with a film of blase resignation in 1931. The chic of that deplorable fad has been exploded along with a great many of our other less charming gestures. There is a new movement toward tremendous enthusiasms. Games, amusing personalities off the beaten path, delightful, exciting places bring a sparkle to eyes that used to feign a false weariness. If boredom is evidenced outside one’s own portals, it is at the risk of popularity!
Scads could be written about the return to naturalness, about what fun it is to be oneself again whether it be in make-up or in personal adornment. But space limits, sadly. However, with only so few days begun on a new year, it does look as if we have the best chance in a long while, to be the clever, charming cells we have always thought we were!
Note ー if you will forward a stamped self-addressed envelope, This Modern World will send you notes on etiquette attached to “making and receiving calls.”