Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1882-04-27
Helena, Montana, Thursday, April u, 1882.
What is Respectable Society!

We heard q man otherwise intelligent
enough, lately sneer at another because
said he, zone never meets him in respectable
society," The speaker did not mean, how
ever, that the person he affected to look down
upon was immoral, but merely that his circle
OF intimates were not composed of the fash
ionable and rich
! This notion of what constitutes respecta-
BILE society, is quite favorite one with that
class of individuals whom Thackery has 50
significantly called "snobs." Empty pretense
always makes its own characteristics stan
dard by which it strives to measure the re-
spectability Of persons at large. In COM
munity of mere moneygetters, wealth is the
! test of respectability. Among the proud
narrow minded, effete nobility of the Fau-
borg st. Germain respectability depends up
on being descendants from ancestors who
have married their cousins for SO many CEN
turies 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,
respectability 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 respectability depends on no such
adventitiOus circumstances. To be respecta-
BILE is to be worthy Of respect apd he deserves
respect who has the most virtue. The humb-
lest 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 monarch upon
his throne
The lady who backbites her neighbor is
less worthy of respect than an honest wash
woman. The profigate noble, though he
may wear dozen orders, is often not really
as respectable as the shoe-black who cleans
boots. That which is called the world" ex-
ats the one and despies the other, but does
not make them respectable according to the
real meaning of that word Their respecta-
bility is but hollow sham, as they them
selves frequently feel, and those who wor-
ship them bow down to a Fetish, q 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 can not 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 welcome there, even
with the sores the dogs have licked.
The false view Of life which would meas
ure respectability by a conventional stand
ing, is totally at variance without republic
can institutions. 1t creates an Emporium in
imperio," for which the law declares all
citizens equal, it erects q social standard
which endeayors to ignore that great truth.
The coarse, british, knavish, prof1igate,
short. all who fall short of their
duty to themselves and their fellow menf-
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.