The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1857-08-19
wha, I, Vulgar, and VIVA, Not.

"Wha, vulgar people I" said boarding.
school miss, superciliously, the other day,
as an honest farmer and his daughters took
their seats near herin the drawing room OF
watering place hotel. Yet Of the two parties,
she was really the more vulgar, if words are
10 be used in their true signifcation. For
the farmer, though plain in his attire and
speech, was kindly hearted, sensible, and
good citizen, while the fashionable miss was
p ert, an idler, possip, exiravagsnt andfool-
ish. Ii was because the former, like the
reat mass of Americans, labored for his
livelihood, and bore about him, in face and
dress and manner, the unmislakable signs OF
his calling, that he was called vulgar. But
are things vulgar because they are common?
Then are light and air and water vulgar, the
trees and mountains, the everlasting ocean.
Or if man is vulgar because he is not
drone, but performs we'll and siurdiy his
task in life, then the wisest statesmen, and
greatest heroes in common with the hum.
blesl peasant, have been vulgar tits mis-
nomer TO call those who aber vulgar, be-
cause OF that labor. 1t is more, II is an IN
suit TO honest toll.
We are left in no difficulty, however, as
10 the origin of the epilhet. 1t had its birth
in different state Of society from our own.
|, is relic of dominant caste. II was a
terms of opprobrium, applied TO the COM
mon people, by race of ins olent, supercIli-
Gus and cruel conque.ors. II we had here,
as Saxon England had, small body oil
victorious soldiers, who had subjugated the
inhabitants of the soil, and had parcelled
out The lands between themselves, there
might, perhaps, be some appropriateness in
the use of the word The mass oil The peo-
pie would then be vulgar, in the sense in
which The Saxon churl was vulgar in the
eyes of his Roman oppressor. What Gur'h
was 10 the Templar, what Cade was 10
Richard the Second, that the operative or
day-laborer would be 10 the wealthy and
supercilious lord o! the soil. But no such
relations exist between man and man in
our Northern 81 ales. Before the law all are
equal Abslraclly, too, he who works,
whether with hand or brain, and SO adds 10
the wealth of the community, is more wor.
thy than he who does nothing for the gen.
eral veal If all were consumers, and none
producers, society would perish: self-de-
slroyed; and consequently the producer is
really superior to. the mere consumer. II
either is to be called vulgar, in any appro.
brious sense of that term, il should he the
latter.
We may seem to treat this matter too Sc
rously. We may appear to enlarge, over
much, on what is self-evdent. But IT is one
thing 10 admit. intellectually, that thing is
true, and quite another TO reduce that rnism
10 practice. In spite OF its being in contra
diction 10 the whole spirit oil our republican
institutions, the prejudice against labor, as
contrasled with life of opuent idleness,
fingers yet even in the northern sections OF
these United States. 1t is colonial habit,
imported originally from England, from
which society has never entirely emanclpa-
ted ITSELF Men, who would be the frs, 10
repudiae in theory such belief, practically
10 ok down upon all Tho earn Their snpsisl-
ence by mechanical or manual arts. To be
a lawyer, doctor, preacher, Office eholder, or
merchant, is considered genleel, while 10 be
farmer, an operative, or a day.laborer, is
regarded as vulgar. The blunt yet sincere
manners of the yeoman, by the same vicl
Gus rule, are called vulgar, while The dis
stimulation OF those, who figure in fashion
able life is pronounced well-bred, Yet, be-
fore the impartial tribunal OF truth, that ii
really vulgar which is false and hollow. |
is the frivolous, idle drones Of society, no
The sturdy and honestly toiling mass, wh'
ought 10 be considered vulgar; and the soon
er The epithe, is thus applied, the more con
sslen, will be its use, and The better and
purer will be the republic.-Ledger.
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