The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-10-09
Social Equality.

Demersra, have come to the conclusion that
they can realize q social Utopia by the le-
gerdemaih of words-by talking down the in
tellicent and talking up the ignorant. The
other day we were striving to identify col
ored man who accosted lis, when he under
took to assist an uncertain memory. He
stated that he used to belong to ''the old
'.man, so and So" (white gentleman,) and
that he was now residing with ''the old lady,
sMrs. so and so, (colored cook and washer.)
A friend of ours, a person OF remarkable
courtesy and consideration, took the pains
to 90 to q house where Q colOred family re-
| sided, for the purpose Of doing Kindness
| to one OF the sons When,' in accordance
with his lifelong custom, and indeed IN
token of good will andrespect, he addressed
! the woman who came to the door as ''Mau-
"ma." he was assaled with such torrent
of abuse that he had no alternative but to
hurry away. A day or two ago, the Charles
ton papers contained the advertisement OF
"a lady who wished place to cook and
"wash;" but who had no idea that such a
notice was fatal to her purpose-that no
body would be so cruel as to employ her to
soil her dainty fingers among the tubs and
pots. Such are samples of the curiosties
of Southern life-of the confusion of distinc-
1 tions-the loud self-assertions-the eager,
tumultuous aspirations social masquer-
AIDES, which Radical craftsmanship has con-
ferred upon our people.
The present condition Of things reminds
one to some extSDt of the French Revolu-
ton. We see among us modified Jacobin-
ism-that is to say, a Jacobinism with its
ferocity tanned and its grotesqueness height
ened-but still it is the same coarse dema-
gogue who proclaims ''liberty, equality, fra
eternity" in all our streets, and whose
proclamation means precisely what it meant
eighty years ago-"Down with the gentry
'fandiu with the cdndHley' What we see
every day strikes us as a curious travesty,
as a funny anachronism, as the France of
1872 contemplated through the wrong end
of the telescope. The Longshoremen put
on the airs of Paris mob; Alderman
Mackey leads his cohorts to the City Hall,
and there harangues them with the courage
and dignity of Danton; the City Council
wrangle and conspire in a mildish way, like
a Jacobin club hybernating; RObespierres
house up town is haunted by dusky serena
ders and ghostlike visitors from dewy eve
till dawn; ever and ION the official gull
lotine obeys the pronp,ing of an invisible
hand and SOMEBODY'S head comes off; and
alas the goddess of liberty chants the rude |
Marsellaise and sends forth her missives and |
her oracles, beside the cooking pot and the
wash tub. All, why can,iot the good old |
time return? The contrast and the compar-
ison which history recalls to the gentle pro-
letarian is intolerable; It's Hyperion to q |
''Satyr" She whose claims are such that |
any gentleman" in the land-'.Might not
''between the winds of Heaven visit her face
''too roughly'-is, by the hard fortune OF
these days, begrimed with smoke and be-
spattered with soapsuds. Yet notwithstand-
ing all these disadvantages, she will cling to
her gentility to the last. Has not the 'black
s.major" shown, in his immortal autobiogra-
ply, that the deeper the color the richer the
blood that runs below!
The little squabbles in regard to social |
precedence that so often occur among us,
arise mostly from the younger portion OF a |
class who have been intoxicated with the
sudden privileges of freedom but have no
sense of its serious responsibilities. The |
elders are steadied less by reason than by |
habit and custom. The decorous proprieties |
Of the life in which they have been trained
still cleave to them. And they have q GER
tain instructive sense Of the fact that equali-
ty and fraternity are further removed from
their race now than under the old regime. |
Among the classes and ranks into which
society was formerly divided, there were |
thousand friendly associations connecting |
the employer and the employed. There were
bridges over the gulfs OF caste. There was
frequent and kind intercourse between
the extremes of society, which was carried |
on without degrading servility on the one |
hand, and without an oppressive eende-
scension on the other. But in the contest |
that now exists, new spirit is awakened, d
spirit that in the end will be quite unfavor-
able to the interests of the laboring classes.
A gentleman jostled in the streets may
philosophcaly say: "Let the blackguard
stake the wall !" or q lady interrupted at an
entrance may repeat the sharp rebuke of
Frederick I, ''Let the greater fool so first!"
But these contests leave ranking sting, |
and will be settled, after awhile, before
another tribunal. This country cannot be |
given over, any more than France was, to
the shirt sleeves and the sans culotteS.
The most important duties pertaining to
the present condition of sOciety-perfect |
self-pOssession and consderate kindness in |
dealing with the uncducated classes-have |
been well understood and admirably carried |
out by our people. This is a cunning fence
against cOarsenesS and bOorishness-a masz
terllv inactivity which in the end will carry |
the day. Nor need the better classes Of So