The
PERFECT GENTLEMAN
BY
RALPH BERGENGREN
The Atlantic Monthly Press
Boston
Copyright, 1919, by
The Atlantic Monthly Press, Inc.
The author gratefully acknowledges his indebtednessto The Century Co. for permission to reprint"Oh, Shining Shoes!"
CONTENTS
| The Perfect Gentleman | 1 |
| As a Man Dresses | 14 |
| In the Chair | 28 |
| Oh, Shining Shoes! | 43 |
| On Making Calls | 55 |
| The Lier in Bed | 67 |
| To Bore or Not to Bore | 79 |
| Where Toils the Tailor | 93 |
| Shaving Thoughts | 106 |
| Oh, The Afternoon Tea! | 122 |
THE PERFECT GENTLEMAN
Somewhere in the back of everyman's mind there dwells a strangewistful desire to be thought a PerfectGentleman. And this is much to hiscredit, for the Perfect Gentleman, asthus wistfully contemplated, is a highideal of human behavior, although, inthe narrower but honest admiration ofmany, he is also a Perfect Ass. Thus,indeed, he comes down the centuries—asort of Siamese Twins, each miraculouslyvisible only to its own admirers;a worthy personage proceeding at oneend of the connecting cartilage, and apopinjay prancing at the other. Emersonwas, and described, one twin whenhe wrote, 'The gentleman is a man oftruth, lord of his own actions, and expressingthat lordship in his behavior;[2]not in any manner dependent or servile,either on persons, or opinions, or possessions.'Walter Pater, had Leonardopainted a Perfect Gentleman's portraitinstead of a Perfect Lady's, might havedescribed the other: 'The presence thatthus rose so strangely beside the tea-tableis expressive of what in the waysof a thousand years women had cometo desire. His is the head upon which"all the ends of the world have come,"and the eyelids are a little weary. He isolder than the tea things among whichhe sits.' Many have admired, but fewhave tried to imitate, the Perfect Gentlemanof Emerson's definition; yet fewthere are who have not felt the wistfuldesire for resemblance. But the other ismore objective: his clothes, his manners,and his habits are easy to imitate.
Of this Perfect Gentleman in theeighteenth century I recently discovered[3]fossil remains in the Gentleman'sPocket Library (Boston and Philadelphia,1794), from which any literarysavant may restore