Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-06-30
LORD GORDON.
An IndIgnan. EaItor On Amerloan

From the New Albany Ledger.
The facility with which titled snobbery
imposes upon the average American mind
Is suggestive of unpleasant reflections. Not
in any country of the world is such genuine
homage paid the European aristocracy as it
never fails to receive from Americans, not
withstanding our boosted republican sim
plicity. The pregnant hinges of no Euro
pean knee crooks half so graciOusly as our
Own-whenever the insignia of heraldry
loom in sight. With US a coat-of-arms comes
nearer cOnsecrating crime than the acquit-
ting verdict of dozen juries. 1t is absurd
to pretend to deny it. Honesty compels US
to admit that, spite of ourselves, we feel it,
curse it-yet cannot shake it of. Like any
other silly superstition, tits difficult to get rid
of. No man believes in ghosts-oh, no, of
course not Who does-in the daytime
We have no respect whatever for royaltY---at
distance; but when the glitter of the tinsel
actually flashes upon cur startled vision
when the p0mp of heraldry and the pride of
power come in personal contact with our
poor Democratic senses-there's the rub;
this is the ssrespect" which makes the seal
amity" of such long life! We may boast
there is nothing in name-that the mans
the man for a. that and a. thatl That the goWd
is but the guinea's stamp! That all men are,
and of right ought to be, free and equal
and yet the very next minute the presence
of My Lord viii absolutely knock enough
Fourth of July out of us to set up a score
of small Republics withal! In the language
Of the poet,
''Why Is these things thus2'
1t gurpasseth us, indeed, to tell The
Gnothi Seauton of the Greeks has never
compassed the psychological paradox which
underlies the reverence of the clear west
ern. grit for eastern chafi We may fathom
the passions, the prejudices, tbs impulses,
the motives Of human nasure, when our in
curry is directed otherWhere than to the in
VestigatiOn of this peculiar idiOsyHcracy /;
but before this we must lay down all our
metaphysical lore, batfled at the very outset.
The Lord Gordon humbug las just been
exposed in New York city-Wonder how
long before we shall have another ofthe same
sort? This Scotch nobleman-so- called
like prophet, was nothing in his GWn cOun-
try. In New York he was everything. The
Erie monopoly got on its knees to do him
honor, and free passes were Crammed into
the hand of his valet over all the roads
in the country. Would his Lordship do
Commodore Vanderbilt the honor to ac-
cept ride in his palatial cars? Would his
High Mightiness repose his precious limbs
upon the plush sofa of some millionaire, the
while bis lovely daughter, Miss Sophronia
Ara1llinta, held his lordly head? Would
my Lord Gordon leave the impress Of his
rosy lips upon the tinkling goblets of Fifth
A7enuedledom in New York? He would.
He did. He came, saw and conquered.
nrA Gordon nod hTrE fyrrO ~r,Nnq ri apfiA0
short AID siIAple. The first was to get
all he could; the second to keep all he got.
He needed not to paste those in his hat.
Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, Boss Tweed, and
even the great Tom Scott himself, became
but the puppets Of his Lordshlp's will.
Stocks and bonds and banks and bankers
were at bis command, and il his yaultIng
ambition had not finally o'erleaped itself he
might, oTen now have New Y ork City, with
the custOm-house to boat, il the capaciOus
pockets of his pantaloons.
But alas in an evil hour, the dream
vanished. Arrested like a democratic NOR
tai and thrown into jail for swindling and
''acting Lord without the title" he proves
to have been all along nothing but CoIlInOn
clay. For tie lItietb time in her not very
short life, Miss Sophronia Araminta has fish
ed for Lord and caught loafer. Determ-
| ined never to wed with sluggish blood she
still pines upon the parent stem, the
envy of those who can not reach
her, the football of those who can. How
often are the tender sensibilitie3 o. our
darling women TO Dc thus trihed with s.iI
frittered away2 The Coming man" is
here-the coming woman is come and
| gone-when shall our weary eyes behold
in real truth the coming Lord ? We fall,
we faint, we fail, weary Of watching and
| waiting.
With fear and trembling we predict that
our next blooded visitor will be humbUg
also-and that Miss S. A. will be deceived
again. This exploding of the royal hum
bug carries about as much practical warn
ing with it as the explosion Of a kerosene
oil can. The last one has always Just gone
to pieces-the next will be nOn-explosive.
Well-we shall see.