The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1882-01-14
WHAT is RESPECTABLE SOCIETY ?


From the Philadelphia Ledger.
We heard man. otherwise intelligent
enough, sheer at another, because, said
he, lone 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 com
posed of the fashionable and rich.
This notion of what constitutes respect
able society is quite favorite one with
that class OF individuals whom Thacke-
ray has SO significantly called "snobs."
Empty pretense always makes its own
characteristics a standard by which it
strives to measure the responsibility of
persons at large. In community of
mere money getters, wealth is the test
of responsibility. Among the proud,
narrow minded, ef1ete nobility Of the
Fauborg St. German respectabiity de-
ponds upon being descendants from an
cestors who have married their cousins
for SO many centuries that neither mus
cles nor brains are left any longer to de-
generate descendants. With the dandy
| officers who constitute a considerable por-
ton of the American navy, responsibility
consists in having sponged on Uncle
SAM in wearing gilt buttons, and in
| lifting 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 adventurous circumstances. To be
respectable is to be worthy of respect;
and he deserves respect who has more
virtue. The 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 fine lady who backhtes her neigh
Dor. is less worthy of respect than an
honest washerwoman. The protligate
noble. though he may wear a dozen or
ders, is often not really respectable as
the shoe black who cleans his boots.
That which is called 1.-THE world " ex-
ats the one and despises the other but
it does not make them respectable ac-
cnrding to the real meaning of that word.
Their responsibility is hnta hollow sham,
as they themselves frequently feel; and
those VINO worship them bow down to a
Fetish, thing 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 day laborer.
Nothing can make Dives fit to lie upon
Abraham's bosom, while Lazarus is wei
coined there. even with the sores the
dogs have licked.
This false view of life which would
measure responsibility by conventional
standard, is totally at variance with our
Republican institutions. 1t creates an
emporium in imperio,' for while the
law declares all citizens equal, it erects
social standard which endeavors to
ignore that great truth. The coarse,
british. knavish. protligate, criminal
in short. all who fall short of their duty
to themselves and their fellow men-are
those who are not respectable; and this
whether they are rich or poor. While
those who live honestly. and strive to do
what thew can. constitute III reality the
respectable class. irrespective of the fact
whether they eat with silver forks Or
steel ones.