Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1845-12-04
THE TRUE GENTLEMAN.

We believe that true gentlemen are con-
fined to no walk or rank in life. The sturdy
blacksmith with his dingy garments, his
open, honest countenance begrimmed with
smut, aud his rough, hard hand, scared with
service more honorable than that of war, has
an immeasurably higher claim to that honor
able name, than the shallow pated flop who
skips through college with kid gloves and a
rattan, cultivates the graces before the glass
and the ladies, and takes his diploma with
all his blushing honors thick on his vacant
head. 1t is a false and contemplate notion
that unless man can boast high descent,
or roll majestically along in a coach en-
blazoned with arms, his name should be
stricken from the list of gentlemen. Which
class has, from time immemorial, conferred
the brightest honors on the human race
the naughty aristocrat, who shrinks with
strong commissions from the touch of the
honest poor man, and moves with step
that seems dainty Of the soil it treads on,
who claims no merit but nobility Of soul !;
Whence come the great lights of the intel
lectual firmament-the stars that form the
brilliant galaxy whose beams dazzle the eve
of every beholder? In the vast majority Of
instances, they have emerged to eminence
from the chilling death of obscurity, desttu-
ton and W ant. Whose voices are ofenest
raised in successful vindication of human
rights, and float over mountain and plain,
over ocean and land, till they vlbrate on the
ear of the remotest dweller in Christendom?
Who are they that
"Pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon,
Or dive into the bottom of the deep
Where fathom line could never touch the ground,
And drag up drowned honor by the locks"' :.
The scions of noble blood? The worship
pers of Bacchus and Venus, who fritter away
the hours granted by heaven for self-im:
provement, in the study of the contemplate
and puerile forms Of fashion? No! they
are men OF low parentage-men who have
bufieted the pillows Of fate without depen-
dence, save upon the mercy ofGod and their
own energies-the gentlemen Of nature who
have trodden under foot ''painted lizards"
of society, and worked out their own dis
tincton with ali ardor that could not be
quenched, and perseverance that consider
ed nothing done while anything yet remain
ed to be done.
THE RIGHT KIND OF A WIFE.-A New
Y orb editor says he had an introduction to
the heroine Of the following sketch:
Mr.. -, a merchant, now residing m
Philadelphia, who formerly lived in rather
an extravagant style, was in the habit, eve
ry Monday morning, of giving his wife
certain sum of money for table and other
household expenses of the week, never
mentioned his business to his wife, and she
deeming him sufficiently capable of attend
ing to his own affairs, never inquired into
them. About five years after their marri-
age, through some slight mismanagement,
and the rascality of his confidential clerk,
Mr. -- suddenly broke, and his fall
was mentioned, sympathisingly, on Change,
and, like all such matters, there all sympa-
thy ended. The merchant kept the affair a
secret, and the first intimation his lady had
of it was by paragraph in the 'Ledger." =
Shortly after dinner was over, on the day
of the discovery Of the startling fact, Mrs.
requested her husband to remain I'M
the parlor few moments, as she had some
thing to say to HIM. She then left the room,
hurried up stairs, and shortly afterwards re-
turned with splendidly-bound Bible IN
her hand. Handing it to her husband, she
said "George, the day after our marriage
you gave me this precious book, as token
Il,