The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-25
THE AMERICAN CHARACTER.

Men are born with different degrees of
inherent forces. After combating the
power of superstition for ages, the doctrine
is about to be generally accepted that the
qualities of both mind and body are in a
great measure hereditary. This fact fur
nishes the basis for the natural classification
of society. In some countries the ranks are
formed upon legal fiction instead. Under
the latter system the son Of a nobleman is a
gentleman although a horse-thief. The
honor and emoluments of office are his by
inheritance although he be an idiot or
vagabond. But this unnatural order of
things is gradually fading out. Among the
people where the rule has been regarded for
centuries as permanent and Interchangeable,
the evidences of its decadence are most
plainly marked. But while this reign of I'M
natural rank is disappearing in one quarter,
can it not be seen struggling for foothold
in another?
Like the light of civilization, when snuffed
out in one place its blaze breaks out in some
circles of American society that the forces
are gradually but surely organizing and
bringing to the front in this country Euro
pean distinctions in social life. Such a con-
dition Of things is not apparent, and under
the forms of our government is impossible.
The most that can be done in the way of inn
itatng nobility by Americans in any phase
does not rise above the dignity of the cheap
est sort of snobbery. The disposition is not
wanting. The genius of the republic, with
the consequent simplicity OF the people, con-
The craze for aping royalty is confined chiefly
to apes The American who goes abroad in
search Of cast-offclothing OF some dignitary is
not an American in the better sense,
The American girl who maintains per
petual matrimonial cap for foreign duke or
count is not truly American, and would be
the miserable failure anywhere that she
usually turns out to be after catching her
bird of royal blood. 1t is not strange that
heterogeneous mass of sixty millions of peo-
pie throws to the surface a small but harm
less collection of apes, oddities and aristo-
Gratis Some of them ride in a four-in-hand
with their footmen and liveried coachman.
The coachman knows the whole turnout, to
the genuine American, to be mark of ridi-
lishment does not always know this. Having
been born fool he makes matters worse by
resort to artificial means for notoriety.
The true gentleman in this country can
drive his own horse If he hires driver he
is not ashamed to sit beside him.
Maybe the superior knowledge OF the latter
concerning horses is equal to that of the
former concerning bonds and stocks. So
there is equality, in a measure, ever between
driver and banker. The one is entitled to as
much credit for his skill and care OF the
morse as the other is for his craft in stocks
and bonds. But so long as the ballot is uni
versal, and intelligently exercised, the lines
between the different ranks of the people in
this country CAN never be established. We
meet annually upon an equal footing at the
ballotbox. The ranks areall open. The in
Exchanging and passing from the lower to
the higher are perpetual. So from the
higher to the lower. Man born with the on
ward and upward impulse will not be kept
down. Born without it, he can not be kept
up, The American "nobleman" is natures
handiwork, pure and simple.
MANY persons in Indiana suppose that
Z. L. Ir.,i.-nr