Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1868-07-03
VERY REsPEcrABLE PEOPLE.

VERY RESPECTABLE PEOPLE.
1t seems to me that thisterm has changed
It's significance within few years. Long
ago respectable people were those Of whom
the world had nothing i'll to say-who lived
quietly and did their duties, and were able
to win respect Girls who worked for their
daily bread, with no stain upon their eharac-
tsrs-men who toiled at common employ
ments for the support Of growing and we'll
trained families, were all welcomed with the
rich to church pew and parlor. To be very
respectable, was to be honest and upright.
Looking over our church to-day, | have
been asking myself whether | belong to the
respectable Of the present time. One ofour
neighbors lives in large white mansion,
surrounded by pleasant walks and charming
hooks for shade on sunny day, Witdin
everything is costly and tasteful. The only
thing wanting is domestic felicity. The
husband quarrels with his second wife, the
first children quarrel with their second
mother, the wife decrepit father is insul-
ted, and yet people call them very rospecta-
bic. Another within a stones throw, lives
more elegantly still, is blessed with several
daughters in his own family, and numerous
sons and daughters in Uncertainties, and yet
bears au excellent name.
A member Of our cburch-one the best
churches in the lands the gentlemanIy
proprietor Of awholesale liquor store, and
neither pastor nor people have as yet taken
any steps toward communicating him.
Another is in the wholesale grocery bust
ness but sells many barrel ofwbiskey where
be sells one Of sugar, for polite-license has
IN the last few years made whiskey
a grocery article, a daily necessity in living.
\ very efficient man has the misfortune to
support three wives and one large family,
two of these wives very fortunately having
20 children. The drain upon his pocket is
heavy and business sometimes stagnant, yet
he is pillar in our neighborhood. Anoth-
er loans money to the poor, takes mortga-
ges on comfortable homes, and forecloses
them at the FIRST good opportunity Anoth-
er keeps large store, employing several
girls as clerks, paying them S. per week for
work, out Of which they pay 81, so for board
claiming the privilege ofusing any familiarity
he chooses, or they must lose their places,
and he the husband Of refined woman.
Another, whom we meet every day, has
wife and lovely children, and yet supports
one and sometimes two Theatre Comique
girls People say what fine business man !
What noble face he has and all these are
called very respectable people.
Several of our neighbors have failed for
hrge amounts, deirauding the innocent poor
aud rumor says these failures we're necessary
that they might lay by a little for their fam
lies to move in respectable society" Many
more never pay their honest debts, even
t.ough they live in affiuence, but custom
las made this allowable.
A man who used to pack pork with greasy
aauds and soiled clothes, and was a very
common fellow, after acquiring money
enough to build fine house and drive a
handsome span, although too illiterate to
speak or write correctly, has become high
IL esteemed citizen.
We have young men in our midst who
drink hard and live fast, and l have heard
young ladies say they were most respectable
associates, and these same young ladies' viii
nie, and walk, and talk with them, when
they should be asleep, losing perhaps what
10 money can regain.
A family with a good show of silver plate
ana silk dresses, lives for the most part on
mked potatoes, and sometimes few at that,
ald all this for the sake of being respectable.
One of our neighbors was assured by the
splits whom he consulted that he and his
wife, though living together, for a score of
Years, were wrongly mated. He obtained
divorce and married his eongenial spirit,
yong dashing girl, who knew as well how
tospend his money as his former wife did
to save it. The whole thing would hardly
haze looked respectable had it not happened
ina first family.
4 lady who used to do dressmaking, hay-
insthe fortune to marry a man of wealth,
has forgotten her old associate dressmakers,
indeed has forgotten how to make dresses
'hinks it must require so much skill and
paience" Several young ladies whose
br,thers have married finely in a pecuniary
seise, and not finely in any other, have be-
cdue so elated by it, that their many airs
hive given them an immediate entree into
food society r.
Another lady, who has an invalid hus-
b;ud-for which she is probably thankful,
allows herself to be kissed, and cloaked, and
g,llanted by certain young man. Our
n,ighbors think it is not prudent, but then
hlr family stands high.
Another, who dresses elegantly never
pits out her washing to the poor by the
dozen, except they are all the largest pieces,
and then under pretense that many are
poorly done, full price is seldom paid, and
yet She attends church and carries very
large prayer book.
AIother scolds her servants necessarily,
carefully removes the sweetmeats from the
table after her family have eaten, takes of
TIE white sugar, and thinks common molas-
ses a, good for low domestics, as Stuart's
refined syrup.
Another makes elegant parties for the
rch, and passes her poor relations on the
street. without even look of recognition!
Cther women neglect their infants for society
u ~
beasts lest their dresses become soiled, and
they have extra care, so putting the child
where death can easily find it. Such women
ought to be called brutes, not mothers, and
vt all these are reJy respectable people.
! The ce,y respectable have fine cushioned
paws in churches, fine Bibles and hymn
haks fine establishments and fine surrOun-