The Portland daily press., 1880-12-02
Superior People.
IN. Y. Tfibune.l


Among the readers of the Tribune, one of
the largest anc most influential classes is made
up OF men and women known to themselves
and to others as Superior people, The name
though not the thing, is of bucolic origin.
Agricultural folk naturally are apt TO apply
the same test and terms to human species that
they would to crops and cattle. The COW and
turnp and man with bold marked virtues
that force their excellence on the most casual
observer, that would be absolutely sure to take
the first prize at the county fair If a gaping
public could give it. are all set down in their
vocabulary as Superior. The phrase applied
to certain citizens of an inland town or village.
usually implies, however, literary tendencies
They are the august personages who must is
sue their dictum upon any new book or idea or
visitor that comes 10 the village before the
community venture to receive it. The man of
this genus is est often clergyman, who sell
dom descends to homely sins and their anti
dotes, but every Sunday grappes with some
stupendous shape of infdelity. Now it is Vol
tare or Paine or some extinct Satan that he
tears to bits. Now it is the vague horror of
German scepticisn;" !" but most frequently it
is Huxley Darwin Bastian. How he
holds them and their theories up to scathing
ridicule! How he fiays them aid tramples
them under foot! The awe-struck congregation
who know these damnable heresies only
through his attacks, listen complacentlv. nod
to each other as they go out, and wonder how
such paragon of learning is left to them and
was not snapped up by city church long ago.
Sometimes the superior man is of more
worldly bent. He is a brefess lawyer or pa
tientless doctor, because he has talents which
have always overfowed any given rut. He
keeps Shakespeare on his office table and is
apt to read you passage now and then and
laboriously explain his beauties. He has been
East two or thee times in his life, and still
pronounces its verdict on the players or
preachers or hobbies which were taking the
town when he was in New York He ''heard
Charles Kingsley lecture, and was ashamed of
the American people to applaud such prosy
plat tudes. There are men in our town. sir
with no reputation to sustain, of double his
force and lire! And that foreign. fellow, Salvini
how coarse and ungentemanly are his effects!
Trust me, sir, tue public of our great cities are
lacking in fine critical acumen. TIE brain of
this nation, its taste, It's real enlightenment
live in quiet country places" OF such like are
his authoritative utterances.
as the man Gndeed her thoughts, like her
words, invariably have a certain fluid foody
quality, which gives you the uneasy sense Of
being washed away) She is usually middle
aged, high-featured and imposing in dress
Nature does not give her the beauty of low
voice or arch ways, which are so charming in
weaker women. Nature is too just to lavish
all her gifts upon one lucky individual. The
village Minerva, as a rule, is emirent in
church affairs. Itwas she who by dint of fairs
feSfi al mi ha E,,co n.
il she is "a Presbyter an she has Just returned
from the Alliance, and can pronounce author-
tatively on every member and motion. T. she
is Methodist she rules the Glass and mothers
meetings like female Pope, These typical
men and women when born into wider
sphere carry the same aggressive TRAITS with
them. You will find mob of them surround
ing the footstool of every original thinker,
giving out his ideas, diluted thousand times
with their own shrewd petty opinions, TO the
world, with the authority of high priests of
Truth. The teacher, be he Carlyle or Emer-
son, is invariably simple and unconscious;
they are selfposed, polished cultured on evety
side. In literature they are the critics; they
acknowledge, probably, that they could not
have crraied Hamlet or FausL because they
never tried but they undoubtedly understand
those creations better than did Shakespeare or
Goethe. In art they are the painters who see
the fine effect OF unbers and yellows in the
autumnal sunset, and sneer at the foolish
sous whose eyes fill with tears at It's hidden
meaning. In music, they recognize only the
nigh classical school; they have no tolera,ion
for ordinary harmonious sounds. The old
songs, the tinkle of the COW bell in the quiet
evening, the sleepy drip of the brook in the
woods, are TO their instincts an offense; they
would willingly make the world dumb in all
sounds but those which they approve.
But 1t is in religion, perhaps, that the supe-
rior man and wemali find their surest stand.
ing ground. You will find them in every sect.
They are those who absolutely certain
they aie right and the rest of mankind wrong;
they interpret the Word; the Spirit speaks 10
them, and them alone. Iu word, thew are.
wherever they take their stand, arbitrary and
intolerant; they dominate every society in
which they are found, whether it be an es-
thetlc ciuo or village sewing-circe. If they
acter and place and homage. Old Samuel
Johnson and Jean Paul could go about ragged
and unknown, and be giants still But our he
ro never lays aside his tinsel crown and scep-
ter. The humble Christian walks in obscure
ways, clingipg close to his masters hand. But
this parsonage always speaks to the world
with Thus saith the Lord