The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1890-07-11
1t Is Of No Consequence.

We are surprised that Mrs. MAoKAY pays
any attention to the malicious people who
are circulating stories in England that she
was washerwoman in her early days on the
Pacific coast. Their venom Is bred by their
envy Of her wealth and social success; and
even If what they are saying were true,
there would be nothing dscreditable to her
in the fact that she turned her hands to
honest work.
Washing clothes Is as honorable as digging
gold, and the employment was one OF the few
in which self-respecting woman could en-
gage in California at that period. Women
Of the region who have since become the pos
SCISSORS Of great fortunes, were once vigorous
laborers at the washtub II not for others.
at least for their own families. Would it be
charged against them as a reproach that
they did the family cooking? In what re-
spcct is the family washing less creditable?
1tmay be less agreeable, but 1t Is necessary,
and there is nothing low or degrading in
keeping clean. If a housewife cannot hire
servants for the labor because OF the lack OF
supply or because OF her lack OF money of
course she must herself preside at the wash
tub. If she was a poor woman and had to
earn money for her support, washing proba-
bly, was the most rcmunerative business to
which she could resort In the gold-digging
days of old, especially If she knew no trade.
Therefore, even if Mrs MACKAY had been
a washerwoman, she would have no reason
to blush over that episode in her career, and
no one except snob or a malicious gossip
would seek to bring it up against her in her
days of aflluencc. Everybody in the aristo-
cratic society which she enjoys, knows very
we'll that she is not of aristocratic birth her
self. She could not be, for there Is no aristoc-
racy in this republic into which she could be
born; and such social gradings as we have
here are OF no consequence In an aristo-
cratic country. The distinctions are merely
between wealth and poverty, breeding and
vulgarity; and II the heredity OF the most
highly bred and the richest were traced back,
it would be found in very many cases that
the line led to the washtub.
The earlier directories OF this CITY, for
instance. indicate that the ancestors OF some
OF the people now most prominent In fashion
were In humble places. They were small
traders. craftsmen and modest citizens,
who must have kept up domestic establish
ments on scale 30 frugal that probably the
housewives assisted at the family washing.
So it Is with that larger body OF people
OF social consequence whose progenitors
came from the country districts Of New
England or other States. Before the
great Irish immigration between 1910
and 1850. the daughters Of farmers often
times thought 1t no degradation to go out to
SERVICE and they were treated by their en-
ployers with complete social equality. From
that stock have come some OF the proudest
families OF New York. Those who can
trace back to comparative ease and luxury
during more than two generations, are the
exception. and many have not reached there
until within their own lives.
Hence it is foolish for an American to be
vexed by intlmations that he Is OF lowly ORR
gin, according to the standards Of an aris-
tocratic society. Hence 1t is silly to under
take TO apply such standards to our society,
made up almost wholly OF the descendants
OF people who were altogether outside OF the
aristocracy of the countries from which they
emigrated. They can only pride themselves
on having como from strong and honest
stock. aud that what social elevation they
have attained is due to their own merits, and
the efforts of their immediate ancestors
Everybody understands that abroad and
that pretence that 1t Is different provoke5
only the ridicule it deserves
1!le American must go for what he Ia him
self, not for what his ancestors were;
and fortunate it Is for our Four Hun
dTeds that it is so. If their hcredity were
t,stcd by the standards Of arlstocracies,
they would be in bad way. Their true
distinction is that they are citizens of dem
ocratic republic. The lines Of aristOcracy
as they are drawn in arlstocratic countries,
do not exist for them. 1t does not matter
whether they were washerwomen or the
children Of washerwomen: they are to be
judged and graded as they are In their in
dlvdual and intrinsic quality.
Whether Mrs. MACKAY was or was not
washerwoman is Of no consequence. The
important TACT is that she i now ii very rich
woman Of social ambitions which she is
usually able to crafty and that she is the
wife OF an able American citizen who has
made his own great fortune.