The Portland daily press., 1872-10-29
A New Test of Vulgarity.

George AllTtQ Low uoCAu, Wv iSShA~eS W
hemian, has told the world that Vice-Presl-
dent Colfax eats with his knife, and the
world knowing something Of Townsend, has
promptly taken his declaration as incontro-
vertible evidence that Vice-Presidsnt Colfax
does not eat with his knife. Townsend never
would have told the truth about SO little
thing as that Even if he had proved to the
satisfaction of everybody that the presiding
officer of the Senate is a sinner against the
code of minor morals in respect to inserting
''two inches of cold Steep into his mouth
witch every fresh morsel OF aliment, 1t is
doubtful if he would have been cast off by
his fellow men as utterly brutal and lacking
ell the finer instincts of humanity. A man
with the exquisite sensibilities of Shelley or
the brain-power of Newton might eat with
knife, if he happened to lack in youth the ad-
vantages of good training. So that man may
ever so recklessly run the risk Of needless and
selt-inficted surgery without being inherently
aud hopelessly vulgar. But we hold that
there is one thing that no adult person of
average ability can now do without instantly
ulSClUoluS LIS lllUOIu COdIoCnCSo alu NuiSo1i
ty. The prejudice against the black color OF
the human skin is now relegated to dandies,
bar-tenders and horse.jockeys, where it
belongs. The prejudice against o
dirty skin, against ignorance and want of
refinement is rational and proper one, and
as individuals of the black race in its present
condition are very likely to excite that preju-
dice, they have no reason to complain on that
account. The blacks must take their chance
with the rest of mankind and win respect by
deserving it, being content meanwhile with
exact justice. But what they have reason to
complain of is the unintelligent prejudice
which objects TO color as color, and which
does not recognize the fact that, other things
being equal, black man is as good as a
white one, and entitled accordingly to like
courtesy and respect.
The time has now come when colored men
ofproper qualifications are admitted to the
highest positions of trust and honor. They
are members of Congress, foreign ministers
and Governors of States. They are the
peers of Sumner, Hamlin, Bingham and
odWcS. IcIududO VOUu dlu OohoCu IVA
sit down with them in the national
council chambers, without suffering visible
detriment. 1t is not known that even James
Books or Senator Thurman has experience
ed any severe mental pain on account Of his
dusky neighbors. At any rate there has been
no development of disinclination among
Democrats to accept seats in Congress be-
cause of the presence OF negroes there. This
being the case, it ought to be made less safe
and less mater of boastful exultation for
the young sprigs of aristocracy who are edu-
Gated at the nations expense at West Point
aud Annapolis-at the expense of the poor
and rich alike-to beat and abuse their fellow
cadets who happen to have black skin. The
Maryland cadet who has just given express
ion to the old plantation brutality and ignor-
ance by attacking Conyers, the colored cadet,
ought to be made an example. No matter
how gentle the blood of such an urchin, he
has the soul of a boor. 'tIs love of the niger
your test of gentility, then?" No. but the
power to discriminate between what is es-
sential and what is merely accidental is one
of the best tests of intelligence, and the CIV
ing ofundue prominence to the adyentitious
is sure sign of snobbish vulgarity. 1t is
no wonder then, that the ungenerons slogan
of former political battles damn the ngger''
is now repeated only by those whose color is
their sole advantage over the African.
The southern papers are filled with the
details of the recent "atfair of honor at At
lanta, Georgia. The accounts show that
prevalent in the average southern breast,
which magnifies the most trivial afiront into
an outrage that can only be wiped out by
resort to pistols and coffee, and establishes a
standard of gentility which must at this time
be very difficult to define in that latitude.
The facts in the case are thus concisely
stated:
''Mr' Wallace Haskell, it appears, took the
liberty of playfully pinching O. lady's arm,
without first asking her permission, and she |
the pinch into a deadly insult. |
Mr.. Houston Force, young blood engaged |
to be married to the lady whose arm was
pnched, caned Mr.. Haskell. Mr. Haskell
Mr.. Force, and Mr. Force declined
to shoot Mr.. Haskell, ON the ground that he
S not gentleman. Mr. Townsend, who was
acting as Haskelps second, thereupon chal-
enged Force. AS Mr. Force could not deny
The gentiltty Of Townsend, he met him on
The field of honor and filed him full of buck
shot. Everything was honorable and salts
actory. Townsend lies at the point of death
rom wound inflicted by a man with whom
he had no qrarrel, and the sore spot on the
young lady's arm has been soothed by the
shooting OF man who had nothing to do
With it.''