Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1858-07-10
NJ The DeRivere affair, list now creating

~ The DeRivere affair, list now creating
so much excitement IN the fashionable worlt
Of the American people: is another evidence
of how susceptible Americans are of hum.
bugsery and toadYism. Although time ane
again have we been imposed upon by titlet
imposters from across the Atlantic, expert.
ence seems to teach no lessons. When the
famous Count NEssELRonE visited sBator
Rouge, strange to say, he found gulls5ready
enough to swallow his story; and though the
community was warned OF the imposition by
| The Tis-a- Tis. it was denounced as a conse-
quence of Know-Nothing hostility to for
eigners. The result proved the Esd Fis
| correct. and but few beside the :Scribe* were
| sufferers at the hands of the Count ~ Capt.
| DsRIvEEE stuffed Mrs. BL.ouSr with a very
secret cock-and-a-bull story Of his being a
French Nobleman in disguise: and the silly
old mother, with. that peculiar hankering
after everything aristocratic among American
would be-somebo1y's is determined that her
daughter shall be a Countess, or some other
title, the lands and estates Of which. even if
they were in the Isle ofzSky. amounted to
nothing so long as her daughter had a tile
The Americans are so plebian-they have no
aristocracy-except the aristocracy of money.
and the honor of having descended from a
cobbler. hod-carrier. or some other honest en-
ployment.
Although we should require no better les
son or example than the DER1vEEE affair, we
will venture to say, that should tomorrow a
foreign n%obleman, of no matter what rank,
visit our very ar:stocratic country, thousands
of fawning: whining toadies could be found to
parade him around, and fairly kiss the ground
beneath his feet. Aristocratic old fathers
who probably acquired their wealth from the
lowest occupations, would fawn upon him
invite him to their houses--especially if they
had a manageable daughter, OF daughters.
while the anxious mammas would caaperons
him around: to the great vexation of others
less fortunate. Loafng, good-for-nothing
sons of such parents too lazy to work would
add their mite towards entertaining the dis
tinguished visitor, and would talk c~oten1p-
tionsly of home institutions as compared with
the n,agnihcence ofsEuropean ones. Let
them IN the result be deceived, and the next
day they would commence the same game.
did another humbus of rank follow in his
suit. a
If there is one error of which the Ameri-
can people are guilty, it is that of 1awning
and whining at the feet of everything Euro
rean: whether fashion or title. Nothing is
good, unless of European manufacture, moth
ing superior, unless it bears the stamp Of a
maker. The aristocracy Of the
United States, if it can claim to be an arts
is one Of the most ridiculous, laugh
affairs in the world. Wealth seems to
be the standard by which men and families
are weighed. Let the greatest scoundre
who ever escaped his deserts in the p%eriten-
tiary: or at the gallows, be but wealthy. and
every crime is covered, and he is one of the
first families" let but an ignoramus with
barely brains enough to teach him to eat and
drink, suddenly acquire a fortune, and imme-
be is one of the first persons in the
land, and an abundance Of small-souled toady-
ng parents are generally to be found around
and about him like flies in the summer around
a dead carcase. Let but d poor miserable
politician, whose soul never rose above the
and commonest Office in the gift of
The people, from some mishap Or other, be-
elevated to a position ofdlsti- ,ction-no
matter whether he is able to fill it or not
and soon will the wealth and honor Worship
pers crowd around as if he were a demi-god
other distinguished persorage.;
Wealth worshipping and toadyism are great
and henious faults in the American people,
and while Office holds out such tempting in
lucements to those who think themselves
above agricultural, mechanical or mercan-
lie e~mployments, just so long will we have
he same pusillanimous conduct on the part
at least seven-eights of the American
A New K1NK.-The Lake Providence
of Sd inst, speaking Of ameliorating
the condition of our levees. mentions the fol-