The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-06-01
What Is Respectable S0ciety.

We heard man otherwise intelligent
enough, lately sneer at another 'be-
cause" said he, zone never meets him in
respectable society,"" The speaker did
not mean. however, that the person he
affected to look down upon was immoral,
but merely that his circle of intimates
were not composed of the fashionable
and rich.
This notion of what constitutes re-
spectacle society is quite favorite one
with that class of individuals whom
Thackery has so significantly called
''snobs." Empty pretense always makes
its own characteristics standard by
which it strives to measure the respecta-
bility of persons at large. In a commu-
nifty OF mere money getters. wealth is
the test of respectability Among the
proud, narrow minded. effete nobility of
the Fauborg st. German responsibility
depends upon being descendants from
ancestors who have married their cous-
ms for so many centuries that neither
muscles nor brains are left any longer to
degenerate descendants. With the dandy
officers who constitute a considerable
portion of the American navy, respecta-
bility consists in having sponged on
"Uncle SAM" in wearing gilt buttons,
and in jilting tailors. Every conceited
fool thinks himself in like way the only
man really weighty, the only man who
is respectable.
But true responsibility depends on no
such adventurous circumstances. To be
be respectable is to be worthy of respect,
and he deserves respect who has the most
vistue. Tie humblest man, who bravely
does his duty, is more worthy of respect,
is more truly respectable than the covet-
Gus millionaire among his money bags,
or the arrogant monarch upon his
throne.
The lady who backbites her neighbor
is less worthy of respect than the honest
wash-woman. The profigate noble,
though he may wear a dozen orders, is
often not really as respectable asSthe
boot black who cleans boots. That
which is called "the world" exalts the
one and despises the other, but does not
make them respectable according to
the real meaning of that word.
Their responsibility is but hollow
sham, as they themselves fire.
quently feel. and those who wor-
ship them bow down to Fetish. thing
of feathers and tinsel. The selfish, idle
drope, who wastes life in his own graft
fication. and dissipates the fortune of his
progeny, is not and can not be respect
able, but the Woodworking, self-denying
father, who wears out his life to bring
up his children is, even though he be
but day laborer. Nothing can make
Dives fit to lie upon Abraham's bosom,
while Lazarus is welcome there, even
with the sores the dogs haye licked.
The false view of life which would
measure responsibility by conventional
standing, is totally at variance with
republican institutions. 1t creates an
emporium in imperio." for which the
law declares all citizens equal, it erects
social standard which endeavors to ig-
more that great truth. The coarse, brut-
ish, knavish, prohigate, crimlnal-in
short, all who fall short of their duty to
themselves and their fellow men--and
those who are not respectable and this
whether they are rich or poor. While
those who live honestly, and strive to
do what they can. constitute in reality,
the respectable class, irrespective of the
fact whether they eat with silver forks
or steel ones.