McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-01-31
AMERICAN SOCIETY"
As it L. Pictured In tho Modern ro.es.

If the value of novels to posterity is
the pictures they preserve of the social
life Of the times they delineate, IL may
fairly be questioned whether our de
scendants will obtain very accurate no
tons of American manners in the year
of our Lord 1884 from some recent flo
ton. But two extremes of our social
life appear to be favorites with our
novel writer's, the very poor and the
very rich, and the contrasts between the
states is presented rs if the parties oc-
cupying these stations belonged to fixed
classes, like the foreign proletarist and
the foreign aristocracy. Herein lies
falseness of the pictures. 1t is q truism
remembered by all except those who
write American novels, that there is no
fixed, permanent, enduring social posi-
ton in America. The son of the Door
man of to-day may be the social leader
OF the next generation. As wealth with
its golden keys opens every door in this
country, what arrogates TO itself the
name OF ''sOciety" simply represents q
large number of rich people and their
friends, n collection which is depleted
as its members lose their money, and
recruited as the new rich appear on the
scene. There is and can be no fixity of
this class so long as its membership
depends upon wealth. 1t is not singu-
lar that it should contain very few men
or women of high scientific or literary
attainments, as these very seldom quail
lily their pOssessOrs to enter the race for
social pre-eminence in which the COM
petitOrs striving for the goal kick up so
much gold-dust. That the manners of
''society" should reflect the manners of
the class from which its members con-
slider themselves promoted is nothing
remarkable, for the line of demarcation
is not here as in Europe based upon
traditions hardened by generations. If
the family life of newly admitted
member of the golden circle has been
favorable to the cultivation of gentle
manners and modes of thought, he will
possess them in his new estate, not by
virtue of his admission but of his pre-
vious training. Consequently an Amer
lean novelist who represents one class
as delightfully."- well-bred and another as
hopelessly rude, draws q picture which
may interest q future generation, but
certainl y is not recognized IN this.
Take ten or twelve bread winners
will eight of them include billiards,
knaves, loafers, two very ignorant and
one scheming and lmmodest woman?
Perhapsa selected group of this num-
Der may include such proportion, but
will the author who makes this selee-
ton typical of the largest class of the
community leave behind him picture
by which future generation will obtain
a correct idea of the American working
people of the last quarter OF the nine
teenth century? We think not. Surely
it must occur to every impartial OBJ
server that there must have been at
some time bread winner who was n
gold winner as well as in the history OF
every family who are gold hoarders to-
day. Trace back our wealthiest fami-
lies-and the American novelist knows
of no others who have claim to be
considered "society''-alId we find their
founder q mechanic with more talent
than his fellow workmen, or a trades
man who developed into great mer-
chant. These men in the bread win
ming stages of their career were neither
blockheads nor knaves, nor were their
mothers and wives shallow-brained and
immodest women, and yet morally
these ancestors of the modern rich did
not probably differ greatly from their
From the ranks of Ameri-
can working-people have sprung many
men justly eminent for great services to
the state, who held themselves well in
high stations, and the future we have
no doubt will furnish yet other nlustrs-
tons of this truth.