The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1871-01-07
FALSE AND TRUE.

ARISTOCRACy, FALSE AND TRUE.
The only aristocracy to which we
eadily accord the need of distinction
md praisei is the aristocracy Of the mind
md of the heart. Men and women may
pride themselves upon Il noble or a
''blooded'' ancestry, upon wealthy kin,
large possessions, fine equipagcs, splen-
did mansions or heavy incomes, but
none of these complete the standard of
a good citizen, Il worthy friend, or de-
serving man or woman, if not supported
by those inestimable qualities which
stamp the Individual as a favored child
of nature in intellectual endowments
and as a being whose inflexibility of will
and perfect honesty of purpose are proof
against the vicissitudes of fortune, the
scowls of the public, the universities of
life and the discomfitures of a hundred
failures. We despise Il tOady and a
trickster as less, UNNECESSARILY less, than
a responsible creature. An individual
with the anatomical structure of an in
tellectual being, who is content to en-
ploy his faculties as a parasite, should
be an object of contempt with all ra-
tional creatures. Such Il character full
fills no part of his mission on earth, but
only makes a mockery of his divine
image and origin. He may answer the
purposes of noblemen and kings-may
dance attendance upon wealth and
blainless pretensiOns as Il purchased
slave-but as rational, independent
creature he is a reproach to his kind.
1t is not in dress, in grand display,
in assumed weight of intellect, in Il
name, or any such specious guise, that
the character of a true man or woman
presents itself to the world; but in noble
resolves and grand achievements, in a
recitude of bearing and an indepen-
dence of will, which ut once balks and
defies the envy and malignity of man
kind. Gentle breeding has it's refining
qualities, but it can never make gen
tleman of a ninny, or a hero Of das
tard.
The man who is endowed with bril-.
liant mental faculties, being thus hon.
ored in his birth, is a favorite OF nature
and has a heritage which is of right
an object of pride and admiration, and
is the more valuable, because wealth is
impotent to purchase its equal, and
lineage must stand shame-faced before
it. It is god-given distinction which
as inevitably elevates its possesso1
above his ordinary fellow-bcings, as the
faculty of reasoning does mankind
above the non-reasoning brute creation
Pretending wealth and high-headet
exclusiveness, every day own TIL
truth, in their readiness to treat will
the stranger who possesses no dollars o
history, but is blessed with only stor
of wit and learning as his passport tt
recognition.
But good qualities of heart most be
speak the lady or gentleman, and these
are likewise the legacy bestowed by
nature, and not by rank. That Gle
waited, comprehensive charitableness in
thinking, speaking and acting, which
robes mankind with the mantle of in
dividual equality and direct response.
bility to Deity, which overlooks ths
foibles and frailties of humanity, which
comedies worth, recognition, and honest
impulses to rich and ragged poor alike
which stands forth in the face OF her
aldry and of prejudice, TO maintain the
cause of poor, struggling, down-trod
den, but virtuous humanity-tha1
quality of soul is an attribute CRANE
and sublime beyond the reach of CON
ventionalism and the attainment o.
pretension. 1t cannot be countcrfeiteC
nor deprecated in value, but is current
for it's face the world over. He who
possesses this trait, bears with him the
imprint of nature-is Il noble mar
| indeed.
| ,I,s, II