The Sweetwater enterprise. (Sweetwater, Tenn.) 1869-187?, 1872-05-30
AristOcracy.


with Us will be disposed to laugh at our
presumption when we state in all seri-
BUSINESS that we have decided aristOerat-
lie preiudices. That having no i%llustri-
Gus ancestral line to boast Of ourselves,
it would seem a species OF affectatiou in
us to profess to see and recognize in
others that claim to superior worth and
responsibility that should always be MS
sociated with pure and noble blood. So
it is, We instiuctiyely render homage
to gsntility when and wherever it is our
good fortune to be thrown in its pres
ence.
There is something about the true
gentleman and lady that makes itself
felt under any and all circumstances.
Whether surrounded with wealth OF
CROPPING in poverty, it matters not, there
is high bred courtesy, a dignity and
carriage, a gentleness OF manner that
bespeaks them nobly born.
No dogma was ever enunciated more
specious aud more mischievous than
that put forth by Thomas Jefferson.
Tint all men were created equal
There is just as much difference between
the gentleman and the boor, even in the
moment they first saw the light, AS
there is between the most spirited Ara
bian and veriest Conestogy. 1t is not
the circumstances surrounding birth
that makes the difference, the wealth and
poverty Of the subject, These have no
thing to do with It-do not enhance
nor compromise its claims, it is the
blood alone, that innate principle, which
psrvades and distinguishes the lives and
characters Of certain lines, descending
from generation, transmitted by father
to son, sometimes subdued aud borne
down by poverty and misfortune, some
times overshadowed by calumny and
wrong, but continually arising in Nil its
native majesty and exacting from the
commonalty that differential respect
which is naturally its due.
We have seen the gentleman bowed
beneath Il weight Of misfortunes: we
have seen him writhing under the cruel
stabs Of ~calumny, but we have never
seen him debas ed. Affection may sad
den his heart, but it can not subdue his
soul. Amid the accumulated weight of
fortune, ho stands the gentleman still.
Indeed it is in adversely, rather, that
the ennobling qualities of birth and
blood are most to be seen and admired,
He who boweth beneath the iron
weight of neglect and poverty can still
maintain his self-respect and moral in
tagrity, is the true gentleman, and 70
degree Of prosperity or adulation could
for a moment make him forSetful OF his
respect to his interiors,
A man tried and confirmed by the or
deal Of adversely can be trusted in pros
perity, and it is this power to resist
temptation to overcome the outward
frowns Of his surroundings, this dispo-
sitiou to despiSe u little action and to
scorn a meanness that constitutes gen
tility or if you will, the mistocrat.
There is Il false aristocracy. however
hat is to be despised, a bogus resp ecta-
bility hat thinks like the daw in the IA
bic, by arraying itself i'll the plumGs Of
the true to pass for which nature never
designed them.
This class has very appropriately bOen
called Goldfish aristocracy," and plumes
itself upon its wealth and gilded appear
ance. Its parade only serves to make it
appear the moro ridiculous and to ex-
pose its true character. There are some,
however, foolish enough to be dazzled
by its tinsel, and to defer to its preten-
tons. The homage of these, however,
is not worth the seeking, for as soon as
adversely strips their shoddy idols Of
their borrowed pluma9e, they are ready
to fall away and despise them.
The man who is not respected in
poverty need not hop" to be popular in
wealth, and the man OF true principles
cares as little for the neglect Of fools as
he does forths adulations of sycophants
"The Southern ar~istocracy" has been
hurled at the elite Of Southern society
as a term of ~reproach; let us cherish it
as n proud Inheritance, and show the
contemplate shoddyites that, amid all
the gloom and misfortune that the SUI
perior numbers and resources ofa cruel
and barbarian foe can heap upon us,
that we can be gentlemen and ladies
still.
Whenever there is much to offend.
there is much to pardon; and when
there is anything to pardon, be assured
there is something to love.-George
Sand.