The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1873-06-05
The Meannesses of Respectability

pet virture or a pet vice, and 1t may almost
more truly be said that everybody has a pet
meanneses. The meannesses Of respectable
ity are Of all kinds and degrees. They vary
of course with different people. Some can
never settle with cabman without des-
perate stuggle over the odd sixpence, and
ranking sense of injury and ruin if The
obdurate Jehu happens to get the better OF
them; others are dismaycG if they are unex-
pectedly caught at church when the offeNory
BAGS are set round With. Others again,
the weak point is perhaps stationary. or some
other cheap article for household use they
can never bring them selves to make bold
investment Of few shillings' worth at o
time. but 90 on from hand to mouth with
pretty purchases which may have an economi-
appearance in detail, although they are
pretty sure to prove more extravagant in the
long run than larger order. There are
even rumors thata raid upon club paper is
not absolutely unknown. We wonder how
many people ever think of buying afew new
pens.
There seems to be supertitious notion
among large class that pens never wear out;
they must be handed down in families al
most as if they were articles Of great cost
and rarity. Blottingpaper, too,. is apt to be
cherished as an object Of extravagant luxury,
over which persons of moderate means are
bound to be very careful. People who
think nothing of going to, considerable ex-
pense for dinner or trip to the country,
will 90 on for months painfully economizing
with few wretched blackened leaves rather
than spend sixpcnce on fresh supply.
The old system of franklinkg letters pro-
duced characteristic development Of mean
ness The shifts and contrivanees to which
people used to resort to procure frank
the labor, and sometimes even, as it would
appear, the expense, to which they put them
selves to get at some one who had 1t in his
power to confer the coveted favor the in
trigues, entreaties, supplications to which
they stopped, are almost incredible. 1t Is
only fair, of course, to remember that the
| rates of postage were enormously high as
compared with the rates of the present day,
and also that eighteen-pence or couple
of shllings was then relatively large sum
than now. Yet, after making every allow
ance on this account, it is amazing that per-
sons who were not in pinched circumstances
should have thought it worth while to hunt
frank valued at perhaps two shillings or
thereabouts, with such keenness and unblnsh-
ing mendicancy. II was fashionable
meanness. and every body praetised it: 1t
Sf M I'M INC iast generation how the getting Of
frank, or fruitless pursuit OF one, was
deemed quite important enough to DC re-
corded, and how frequently the incident
turns up
The parallel to this morbid passion in our
own day is perhaps the mania for orders tor
the play. M. Tainc has remarked with
some astonishment in his recent letters that
amusements of this kind form a small item IN
the expenses of an English middle-class
family, and that it is thought necessary
economy to 90 to the theatre only when free
passes can be procured, Managers. actors,
dramatic critics, newspaper editors, whose
whose pockets are supposed to be tuned
with orders, are importuned recklessly ana
shamelessly, in order that well-to-do people
may be provided gratuitously with what they
could themselves purchase for a Few shlllinSs
| whenever they chose. During discussion
of.the subject year or two since, 1t was
stated that managers and actors frequently
receive letters from persons who are entire
strangers to them, expressing desire to wit
ness their performances, and begging tor Or
ders. Perhaps the lowest depth OF mean
ness to which responsibility descends is IN
seeking medical attendance at the hospitals,
thus abusing the charity of the institutions
and defrauding the poor, whose places they
occupy. :.
At a recent Poor Law Conference, it was
asserted that cases were known in which
respectable householders had disguised them
selves as servants in order to procure gratul-
tous advice and medicine ;apd, even without
disguise. people in comfortable circumstances
not unfreauently avail themselves OF the
hospitals rather than call in doctor to ut
tend them. This, however, is not merely a
meanness. but an act of dishonesty, and 1t is
pity there is no means of furnishing it as it
deserves. Reasonable economy is always
rcspectable in small things as in great, but
the meannesses of which we have been speak
inc are at the best but bastard economies,
and serve not unfrequeutly as an excuse Tor
extravaganza in other wrys. Wastefui peo,,
plc often have fits of pretty parslmony,. and
| will squandcr pound with great equanlmlty
on the strenth OF tho supposed virtue and
self.dcnial which has been exercised in some
shabby trick for saving sxpence.-1hc Sat
mclay Revie'o.
UoRR1pLE DEATH.-Levi Souls, who Kill
; ed Noah Sutton, both white men, Marion
County, in February last, was hanged, yes
terday. The two men were employed as fla
hands on the Pee Dee River, and the testi
mony was that all hands on board had beer
t freely drinking. Souls, drawing pistol, un
der drunken excitement, discharged 1t to