Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1886-03-27
MARTINsBURG, W VA SATURDAY, MARCH p, 1886.

this country, whose example is work
ink the results noted across the wa
ties, there should be a tendency to
mimic and initiate the forms and
ceremonies, the pretenses and as
sumptions, of English aristocracy.
There may be some excuse to urge
in behalf of class distinctions and
claims to blue blood in England, by
reason of honorable achievements
aud distinguished services in the
past, and in view Of the traditions
and institutions of that country.
But here there is none, and those
who are now seeking to initiate
court manners and clothe themsel-
yes with class exclusiveness, depend
not upon their "blue bloodr and an
cestry, but upon the filthy lucre they
have accumulated or the accident of
position they hold. This pretension
is exceedingly annoying to the seedy
"blue blood" it is true, and there is
no common sympathy between them.
Yet both are held iu utter con.
tempt by the great mass Of the peo-
pie. The miserable parvenues who
call themselves the "best people,"
composed of a mutual admiration So
clety of diminutlve proportions, nat
urally sheer at shoddy as it awk-
wardly disports its jewels and cost
ly equipages and glories in dazzling
extravagances; while shoddy hus-
ties by in silks and satlns, dependent
upon the sensation of the hour to
hold the position it has usurped and
sustain the superiority it would as
sert. Both are the outcome of a
pernicious and sensual sentiment
and both are barnacles upon the
body polite. There is no legitimacy
about either. They are frauds up
on the great underlying motive of
well organized society, and upon the
natural rights of man. The true
aristocrat is the honest laborer of
the country-the man who makes
two blades of grass grow where one
grew before-whose labor creates
values, to enrich the State an bet
ter the condition of mankind.
The days of English snobism are
numbered, and the American peo
pie will see that the pretenses of
shoddy and the seedy !" blue bloods"
of this country shall be properly
measured and appreciated. 1t is
pitiable to notice the butterflies of
an hour sporting in their gaudy col
ors and claiming superiority over
the mass of the people, when they
are so soon to be forgotten and their
memory fade away as the morning
mist. What do they amount to, af-
ter a few clods rattle upon the box
that holds them ? Unless they have
left a monument in the virtues
they have practiced-ln the good
deeds they have performed-the
suffering they have alleviated, and
the high purposes which have been
manifested in their associations
with men, their names will never be
mentioned or their existence mark
an event in the whole round of hu-
man life.
"Shoddy" and "blue blood" are
very contemplate things as we'll as
expensive ornaments, as the En-
glish people are coming to think
and as the American people will
practically conclude when they are
awakened to the fact that such fun
gi are fastening upon the political
and social organism of the State and
Nation. The common people, the
bone and sinew of the country, don't
care about having pressed upon
them the decayed scions of an un-
healthy ancestry, nor will they toll
crate the glaring pretensions of ig-
norant shoddyism.- Valley Virgin
ian.