Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-05-14
IndeDendence.

The old-fashioned virtue of humility
has fled before the power of that dis
agreeable quality generally mistaken for
independence of character. We have
nothing to say against this independence
when it is properly maintained, and
does not degenerate into insolence; but
things are not always called by their
right names; and great amount of bad
manners and insolence passes current in
all classes of society as independence,
personal pride or social superiority. It
is difficult to define real independence
of character; to tell just what the COM
bination of self-respect, good judgment
and mental strength in which makes it !;
but it is easy enough to tell what it is
not. When a cook boils the mutton she
was told to roast she is disobedient, not
independent. When writer reyenges
his personal sights in newspaper, or
gratifies dislike of his neighbor by false
imputation of motives, he plays the part
of q coward, and has no courage In him.
When passenger stretches his legs
across horse-car, or sits sideways with
his feet in his neiehbors way, and looks
like a thunder-cloud at any one who
stumbles over him, he is simply a nuis-
ance and intensely disagreeable. The
false notion that work for an employer is
incompatible with independence and
service incompatible with pride, have
made immeasurable mischief in the
world. The term servant is now an
obnoxious one; we have housekeepers
and assistants: parlor-girls and table
girls; but no servants. In the stores. the
saleswoman who is paid to wait upon you
bristles angrily if addressed by her pro-
per title, and announces to Your startled
ears the fact that she is a salestady. As
you cross the crowded street after leav-
ing the naughty damsels presence, with
the tinkle of her cheap bangles and
cheaper ear drops still mingling with
her insolent voice In your memory, you
wonder why the courteous officer who
conducts you safely over the crossing is
not called a police gentleman and
think, in a dazed way, that you must in
future speak of Dinah with due respect
as your washlady, and of Michael as
your sh-gentlenIan. Why not? They
are all-saleswoman, policeman, washer
woman ard ashman-equal In the sense
Of being servants. Everybody is bound
to some kind of service; everybody is
dependent upon his fellows; the veriest
recluse must have food, clothes, and a
shelter; and If he can make these him.
self he is still dependent upon the
courtesy of his neighbor to let him
alone. 1t is impossible to be wholly in
dependent, and the attempt might as
well be abandoned. All who live must
do something. Let this fact be universally
recognized. Letus stop calling insolence
spirit, rudeness independence, noisy
seif-assertion manliness, conceit pride,
and boorishness dignity. Give credit
for good work, whether it is eulogy or a
pudding, and confess that success is do
ing well that which one undertakes. TIC
be absolutely independent and free from
service, we repeat, is granted to no one
and even the choice of service and of fel-
low-workers is very much limited. To
talk of freedom is in great part sheer
boasting. We are born in harness and
the best we can do is to keep the harness
from chafng, and to make it help.