The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-01-13
What is Respectable Society.

fNN~~~N~N
We heard a 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 immor-
al, but merely that his circle of init
mates were not composed OF the fash
ionable and rich.
This notion of what constitutes re-
spectacle society, is quite favorte
one with that class of individuals whom
Thackeray has so significantly called
"snobs.' Empty pretense always
makes its own characteristics stand
ard by which it strives to measure the
responsibility of persons at large. In q
community of mere money-getters
wealth is the test of responsibility.
Among the proud, narrow-minded, eff
fette nobility of the Fauburg ST. Ger
main responsibility depends upon be-
ing descendants from ancestors who
have married their cousins for so many
centuries that neither muscles nor
brains are left any longer to degenerate
descendants. With the dandy officers
who constitute o considerable portion
of the American navy responsibility
consists in having sponged on Uncle
Sam" in wearing gilt buttons, and in
jlting tailors. Every conceited fool
thinks himself in like way the only man
really weighty, the only person who is
respectable.
But true responsibility depends on no
such sadventitious circumstances. To
be respectable is to be worthy of re-
spect; and he deserves respect who has
most virtue. The humblest man who
braVely does his duty, is more worthy
of respect, is more truly respectable.
than the covetous millionaire among
his money bags, or the arrogant mon
arch upon his throne.
The fine lady who backbites her
neighbor is less worthy of respect than
an honest wash-woman. The prohigate
noble, though he may wear a dozen Or
ders, is often not respectable as the
shoe-black who cleans boots. That
which exalts "the world" exalts the one
and despises the other, but it does not
make them respectable according to the
real meaning of that world. Their re-
spectability is but a hollow sham, as
they themselves frequently feel. and
those who worship them bow down to a
Fetish, thing s.of feathers and tinsel.
The selfish, idle drone, who wastes life,
in his own qualification, and dissipates
the fortune of his progeny, is not and
cannot be respectable, but the hard
working, self-denying father, who wears
out his life to bring up his children, is,
even though he be but a day-laborer.
Nothing can make Dives fit 10 lie upon
Abraham's bosom, while Lazarus is well
coined there, even with the sores the
dogs have licked.
This false view of life, which would
measure responsibility by conventions
al standard, is totally at variance with
our republican institutions. Ii creates
an emporium in imperio," for while
the law declares all citizens equal, IL
erects social standard which endeav-
ors to ignore that great truth. The
coarse, british, knavish, prohigate,
criminal--in short, all who fall short of
their duty to themselves and their fell
low-men-are those who are not re-
spectacle; and this whether they are
rich or poor. While those who live
honestly, and strive to do what they
can, constitute in reality the respect
able class. irrespective of the fact
whether they eat with silver forks or
steel ones. -Fbiiadelphio Ledger.