Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-03-04

to the auction block, whose maidens were
snapped for tobacco others of Hugue-
not descent, though originally tailors,
shoemakers and vulgar artisans, their
base mechanics blood having been puri-
fed by persecution and kept undefiled
by freedom from labor ever since. We
have, of course, some most excellent
people whose patents of nobility only
run back to the ownership of negroes at
the South. The more select classes are,
however, in the minority; the great mass
of us are base-born descendants of farm
ers, mechanics, traders and laberers--
born without spoon of any kind IN orr
mouths-brought up with the assistance
of two-tined-forks. Some of US are i'm
migrants who came around the Horn,
or giG the Isthmus, in the steerage.
We are adventures brought together
from all parts of the United States and
of the world. We all came poor and
in the earlier history of California
engaged in all sorts of pursuits, all
kinds of labor. Our object was to
get rich, and as there was no society
with its imperious laws, making labor
dishonorable, we worked, we mined, we
toiled on farms, kept peanut stands, sold
vegetables, manufactured and sold bad
whisky, kept livery stables, kept school,
ran omnibus lines and corner groceries,.
were blacksmithS and foundrymep, sold
drugs at retail and gambled little on
oil lie
ginger-pop manufacturers, peddlers, su-
perintendents of mines; some of US
worked by the month in saw-mills and
on board river craft, or earned an honest
dollar as bOatmen, SteyedoreS and long
shoremen; some of us were common
men war, neglected to return, and for
a subsistence washed dishes in restau-
rants or waited in hotels. Our wives kept
millinery stores and we carried home
the bandbOXeS; our mOthers-in~law kept
bOarding-houses or furnished rooms, and
we stayed with the old lady till we got
rich and ashamed and then pensioned
her Oft to retire from the business Some
of us practiced law or snapped things,
or practiced medicine, or preached, or
turned stockholders. We all invested
our earnings in mines, real estate mer-
camille ventures, gas, water and railroad
franchises. We have obtained monopo-
lies in gold, land, mines, mills, gas, water,
ice, milk, chemicals, grain, lumber,
steamboats, and express companies. We,
hoxy i Il. i
we have pooled stocks; we have gam
bled in every venture that offered a
chance of gain. We have loaned our
money at usurious rates of interest.
Those who ran the gantlet success
fully and got rich have organized them
selves into good society" and, while
they have not driven the well-born and
highly cultivated from their association,
have put them upon their good beha-
vior-have said to them that they are
only allowed upon sufferance, and will
only be tolerated so long as they comply
with the rules that govern the new
organization. The first and leading artir
Gle of the constitution of our society is:
{" No reflections upon the past" {" No,
asking questions;" mo waking up. of
ancestors, and all that antiquated nom
sense" "No hints at former employ
ments." Like the clown in the circus,
with al our spots and spangles, Here
we are, Mr.. Merryman; how do you like,
us?" When new candidates come for
ward for admission all we demand is
hot Ln To n Of
character, wear good clothes, and be
fully up to the proper standard of de-
pertinent. If they do not wear the re-
gala and pay their dues they are dropped
out. The real truth is, our people are all
standing upon so nearly the same plane
in point of birth, education, employment
and general espectability-we are all
so nearly adventurers, so new to each
other, and so really Indifferent to- the
exactions and standards that older
communities have set up for themselves
that when some good, honest gentle
man or some good, worthy and modest
gentlewoman, with sons and daughters
properly reared, enriched by sudden for
tune, comes knocking at the door and
asking admission to our society, it gives
them an immediate welcome. Now and
then some of our people who had grand
fathers shrug their shoulders and scowl.
Now and then some of the newly en-
riched put on airs with their diamonds;
but, as rule, we soon become reconciled
to each other, and go on .harmoniously to-
gether Good breeding and good culture
are highly respected, good manners are
fully appreciated. A little shoddy and
little bad grammar are overlooked among
the older members, while from the
younger gentlemen and ladies we expect
department and culture that are up
to the highest standard of social excel
lence.
So we promise that if our bonanza arts
tocracy of to-dayis not quite the genuine
thing we will present one in the next
generation fully up to the average of the
descendants of the pirates, slave-sellers