The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1860-04-24
WHAT is RESPECTABLE SOCIETY,"

We heard man otherwise intelligent enough,
lately sneer at another, "because," said he, lone
never meets him in respectable society. Inc
speaker did not mean, however, that the person
he affected to look down upon was immoral, but
merely that his circle of intimates was not COM
posed of the fashionable the rich.
This notion of what constitutes respectable So
ciety is quite favorite with that class OF In
divuals Whom Thackeray has so significantly called
Hsnobs" Empty pretence is always making lts-oWn
characteristics a standard by which it strives to
measure the responsibility of persons at large In
a community of mere mOney-getters, wealth is the
test of responsibility. Among the proud, narrow
minded efete nobility of the Fauburg St. Ger
main, responsibility depends on being descended
from ancestors who have married their cousins for
so many centuries that neither muscles nor brains
are left any longer to the degenerate descendats.
With the dandy officers who constitute consider
able portion Of the American navy, responsibility
consist in having spOnged on "Uncle SAM In
wearing gilt buttons, and in bikng tailors. Every
conceted fool thinks himself in like way, the only
person who is respectable.
But true responsibility depends such ad-
ventitious circumstances To be respectable is to
be worthy Of respect and he most deserves respect
who has most virtue. The humblest man, who
bravely does his duty, is more worthy of respect
is more respectable, than the cOvetous millionaire
among his money-bags or the arrogant monarch on
his throne The fine lady who backbites her
neighbor is less worthy Of respect than an honest
washerwoman. The profigate noble, though he
may wear a dozen orders at his button-hole, is Of
ten not really as respectable as the shoe-black who
cleans his boots. That which is called "the
world" exalts the one and despises the other; but
it does not make them respectable according to the
real meaning of that word. Their responsibility
is but a hollow sham, as they themselves frequent
ly feel and those who worship them bow down to
a fetish,-a thing Of feathers and tinsel The sell
fish, idle drone, who wastes life in his own gratif
cation, and dissipates the fortune of his progeny,
is not, and cannot be respectable; but the hard
working sefdenying father, who wears out his
life to bring up his children, is, though he be
but day-laborer. Nothing can make Dives fit to
lie on Abraham bosom, while Lazarus is welcomed
there. even with the the dogs have licked
This false view of life which would measure re-
spectability by conventional standard, is totally
at variance with our republican institutions. 1t
creates an emporium in imperio; - for while the
law declares all citizens equal, it erects social
standard which endeavers to ignore that great
truth. The coarse, BRITISH knavish, profigate,
crimina-in short, all who fall short of their duty
to themselves and their fellow men-are those who
are "not respectable; and this whether they are
rich or poor while those who live honestly and
strive to do what good they can, constitute what is
really the respectable class irrespective of the fact
whether they eat with silver forks or steel ones.