Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1871-09-14
shOddy.

In every age of civilization there has
word ''shoddy." In every age there
has been a contempt for what the
French call the RoHreGuc riches
the "neW rich people," Only during
our war. when fortunes were made
rapidly by corrupt contracts, arose the
word shoddy, donbly expressive of the
cheat by which the fortune was made
and the fimsiness of the claim to aris-
tocraey which shoddy people set up
In the old South, where no amount of
money could atone for the lack of
family, the parUenus were called
"upstarts." An aristocratic Virginian
pretended to be able to tell ''gentle-
man" from an ''upstart'' by the manner
of putting his foot in the stirrup. The
writer of this well remembers the
laugh that greeted him when many
years ago he first mounted a horse in
the grounds or Virginia planter. -
"You ride like an upstart," was
the general cry. An ''upstart'' rests
in the stirrup on the ball Of the foot,
but Virginia gentleman thrusts his
feet in to the hollow of the foot. "An
upstart rides as if he expected to fall
Off; a gentlemen gets on a horse as
though he meant 10 stay"
The English have n great contempt
for new families But all families
have been new. And after all our talk
about shoddy and new families, there
is much to be said on the other side
1t is true that generations Of real cul-
ar0 ua 11n t.
pie as generations of careful breeding
to animals. But unfortunately, high
social position does not always give
real culture. 1t may soften the manners
while it hardens the heart; it may
sharpen the wits and dull the intellect.
Many of the greatest men in New
England were the children of poor
people. If poor ancestors do not gen
orally give as much refinement as
richer ones, they are likely TO furnish
more vigorous character. Henry
Wilson, the Natick shoemaker, has
not the refined culture that many
men on Beacon Street Hill possess,
but Henry Wilson is probably a better
Senator than any man that Beacon
Street Hill could furnish. Over re-
finement is as fatal as too little refine.
ment
In no part of the United States did
this snobbish pride of family ever
grow so rankly as in Virginia. And
yet every now and then some sturdy
''upstart'' would come to the surface
and carry off all the prizes from the
more favored sons of the ''good fam
lilies" The "good families" never
forgave the offense. Governor Giles
was the son of cobbler, and it is re
lated that lady once twitted him with
the fact. ''Governor,' she said, ssmy
mother used to wear shoes that your
father made" Very quietly the Gov
ernor replied: ''She must have worn
frightfui shoes, then; my father could
not make any thing but old clogs. >
In this passage our sympathies are all
with the pdrVenu For it is no sin to
have made your own fortune The
sin of shoddy is not in being newly
rich, but in being yulgarly and preten
tiously rich.
If the pretensions of the "new
family are sometimes ridiculous, so
are those of the hereditary aristocrat
There is as much vulgarity and ami
mality among rich people as among
poor. The fact that a man came from
poor ancestors is certainly not agains
him it is sometimes in his favor. /
is a strange fact that this pride o
family will perch itself in strang
places sometimes. People who Lav
descended from Pocahontas are partic
ularly pround Of their savage ancestor
Randolph piqued himself not a littl,
on this, and when he squeaked out a
Roger Sherman, the first shoemal1e
in Congress, What did the gentleman
do with his leather apron when he cam
to Congress ?" the latter quickly re
piled, in the same querulous tone: g
cut it up to make moccasins for tn
descendants of Pocahontas p
1t is not the being rich that make
one a snob, and it is not the suddel
acquisition of wealth that makes on
shoddy If one is a fool, riches wi
give his folly place in sight of ever
body. A man can not be a shodd
aristocrat without being rich. But h
will not be one unless he is also foo
Hearth and Home.