The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1889-04-09
omcial Dignity Again.

| SOOu many peOple III bulS COulluulJy
and by some from whom better
things might be expected. Their,
are some who have an innate affinity
for whatever is dirty and scabby, anC
accordingly ike to see honors put
upon persons of such qualities The
more loathsome the private life ot
the big man, and the more corrupt
his public record, the more cordially
do these people bow and grimace
before him, and with the keener
appetites do they beslaver his boots
They appear to have a genuine ad
miration for such parsonage. They
model their miserable lives upon his,
and count their noblest hours to be
those passed in his society. If old
Beelzebub himself were in exalted
position among Us, this kind of cat
tie would hang about him and pay
him reverence with all the more
satisfaction, because of his disting-
uished Tartarean eminence.
But there is another class, simple
minded rather than corrupt-and to
this class l fancy the Bulletin genius
belongs-whose silly souls are deeply
impressed by titles of lofty sound,
and who have the feeling that the
holder of such title and rank is
something more than human, verify
one to worship and abase ones self
before. Their imaginations are pro-
foundly wrought upon by the exalted
position of the lofty being who
moves before them. Their feeble
brains become hopelessly added.
they lose all sense of right and
wrong, fitness and unftness; for is
not this indeed a god in whose gra-
cious presence they are privileged to
sun themselves? All this kind run
after the great people and hang
about them, no matter how foul and
low their lives are, as if enjoying the
highest honor and privilege of their,
existence. So will you see the
humble burro lift up his exuberant
ears and trot delightedly after that
being the horse that strays
into his paddock. Said horse may
be the most vicious and worthless of
scrubs; but burro asks not after
character and worth. Is it horse?
Then let me worship himi
Some of this indiscriminating rev
erence for rank and title is derived
from early associations. Who has
not seen chiefs attendants work |
ing themselves up into a delirous
ecstacy of emotion in chanting the !
praises of their iege? We do not |
wonder at these absurd goings on in |
natives, because they inherited such |
actions, and were born and trained
% worship their chiefs. But it does
strike one sometimes as incongruous,
o see the apparently honest and
sincere toadying of some decent
White people. 1t is still more stimu-
ating to ones sense of humor to see
he lofty airs habitually worn by
ome very = ornery" people, because
# the intimate relations they or their
antilles have enjoyed with great
thing too often not to
,e IN the least proud of, but quite
he contrary.
l am not to be understood as OBJ
Getting to the observance of due
orms of respect towards persons in
fficial station. They represent the
tate; they represent responsibility;
hey represent the presumption of
Ugh character, if not the actual DOS
ession of it. When royalty OF high
fficials visit national ships, salutes
re appropriate. When the Judges
enter the Supreme Court.
r the King officially enters an as
embly, the people should rise, out
respect to the office, at least.
here should be proper Difference of :
tanner towards, and respectful
of, persons in high posi-
on. r
But to be told that we must not
0enly criticize or condemn the CON
1et of exalted personages, is an
ltrage on the good sense and feel
g of every right thinking person. I
hold that the higher a mans posi-
OH, and the greater his response
lity, the more severely should base
sss and dishonesty in him berepro-
ited. We may indeed tolerantly
,ndone IN him the ordinary weak
ssses Of human passion and frailty,
1t unmindful of the severity of the
to which his high posi-
IN subject him. But when we are
Id that his mightiness is to be
.empt from the ordinary judgments
human conduct, and that, prac-
Sc what baseness he will, no voice
to be lifted up to denounce
ch behavior, and nothing but
'aise and reyerential awe must fol
W him, we are led to asks this
eaker a product of the nineteenth
injury intelligence, or is he some
tray from the Euxine or the LIE |
mt, who has traded his fez for a
It, but who is incapable of getting
y occidental or modern ideas into
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