The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-05-29
English snobbery.

Mr.. Charles G. Leland thus writes
from London to the New Orleans
Times Democrat: "There is, however,
in England, as in every other country, q
disposition to greatly exaggerate the
advantage which the United States en-
joys in possessing so much cheap land.
l was told, only recently, that but for
this we might be as backward $ any
country. To which / replied: DO you
really attribute prosperity to land
aloneY YES was the answer. How,
then, is it that Russia, with SO much
productive soil, is the land of miserably
poor peasants 'Ah! the Russians are
q very different people from the Amer
leans There I said, at the very first
question you change your argument
from the land to the character of the
inhabitants Adam Smith has shown
that in TACT the worst land in any
country is generally the first settled.
1t is not understood here OF elsewhere
in Europe that the truest elements of
prosperity in a country are freedom,
equality, justice and education. Add
to this free exchanges without much
extravaganza, few paupers and very
few immoderate fortunes, and we
should have the chief elements of ma
terial prosperity. If we take let us
say, 1000 men, and settle them any
where there may be found for every
one his work. If they can produce
more than they can consume Of any
fabric or material let them sell it to
another community. But if we intro
duce to this commerce a millionaire, a
lord or any person who will keep a
large train of half idle servants and es
tablish ~extrayagant standards of living
and wants beyond the majority, we at
once bring in that which results in in
dolence, poverty aud vice. An aristoc-
racy did great good and little harm dur
ing the Middle Ages; now the condi-
tions are exactly reversed. The point
was long since passed in America when
this became generally understood.
Here in England we are just getting to
~. 44hlA Vie WOllu 10 Sttll ulUIe ludl
half convinced of the truth of the coup
let.
But, oh, preserve our old nobility!
while the other half is beginning to be-
lieve that for every grain of independ-
nee and culture in the aristocrat there
necessarily results ounces, ifnot ponds,
of funkeyism and degradation in his
dependents and admirers. I have
spoken Of the rapidly growing prosper
ity Of England and the manifest i'm
provement in the education and APP
pearance Of the lower class. Just in
proportion to this is the growing i'm
patience at the prestige of mere rank
and inherited wealth, and the anger
that such beings as funkies and seryile
followers and decendents should be
regularly trained and made, so to speak,
to disgrace the name of Englishman.
Thackeray was the first to effectively
show what q mean snob and slave an
Englishman could become by being a
servant and parasite, and how the
higher the lord was, the lower the lack
ey became. Z believe that to his works
more is due than to any other cause
that the educated and more intelligent
people of Great Britain have of late
separated themselves so much from the
titled classes and begun to speak so
much less kindly of them. Twenty
years ago people laughed at James
yellow plush and scorned the snob; now
they are beginning to ask why they
exist and what caused them? Once
they would kill the snake to punish him
for being one;now thay would doit to