Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1890-09-04
THE COMMON PEOPLE.
Old World Customs That Strike Americans
IA PrrDostrrou<

rs NaOEAu &uAteMN uAt 1ATh&G
as Preposterous-
In Europe, rank is first Of all a queo-
tion OF birth. Mr.. Gladstone must &c
into dinner after a boy il Inc boy hap
pens to be n duke. This rule of proceed
ence strikes the American as preposter-
Gus. Our countrymen have been so long
rid of a privileged class of titled aristo-
Gratis that they Ear not understand how
genius and eminent service may be
reckoned after a mere family distine-
tion. We believe in blood in this coun-
try. but we expect it to tell in achieve
ment before it is accorded the first place
of honor. 1t is true that Americans are
sometimes accused. not always unjustly,
Of tuft-hunting; but the titled foreigner
is sought after over here because he is a
rara dris, a social curiosity. and not be-
cause Americans are born with that in
stinctive Difference to rank which is 50
general on the other side of the At
lantic. An hereditary legislature has
always been impossible here. Strictly
speaking, there are no common people
except commonplace people. The rigid
ity Of social forms. the drill of society.
establish n conformity to etiquette
which, however decorous, is not pictur-
esque or otherwise interesting. The
regulation uniform of society, the dress
coat and white cravat, may be defended
upon certain grounds which we need not
examine now: but there should be no
tolerance for the affection of a tone. a
manuerism, which is at war with every
thing expressive of originality or even
of individuality. We would not imply.
of course, that people of good society
arc necessarily commonplace ordull. Wit
and humOr are always welcome among
sensible men and women; but we have
remarked a tendency to make a fetish of
forms, to set up a Draconian code on the
authority of Mrs. Grundy, which is only
too suggestive Of another famous lady's
''prunes and prisms." Eat commonplace
people are not confined TO any sphere of
life. We find them wherever a stupid
mental conservatism condemns the
eccentricity of 4 new thought or
an independent opinion. If a
man does not enjoy the Para
disc Lost. il he is not enthralled by the
EtnAu1 VI -AAAAA,bn - u ChttLt. We con
fess that we like to hear him acknowl-
edge his treason frankly. There is more
in him than there is in the solemn hum
bug who Processes to admire every thing
that he has been told he ought TO adj
mire, and who has never in all his life
been guilty OF one honest criticism.
Originality is the one essential uncom-
mon tHfnr in fNa ,-,rrI a,I tIo--b .L;s
may seem paradoxical-there is a great
deal of it among those whom we are
wont to call the common people. Our
great novelists seek it in remote coun-
try districts. il mountain Businesses, in
the lowly retreats Of poverty and ignor-
ance-wherever nature has 4 chance and
people say what they think. It fasci-
mates us because it is human rather
than conventional. The society novel;
ist essays a task of immense difficulty,
for every body prefers sam Weller to
Fitz Augustus Templeton De We're, and
society IS never dramatic until. under
the impulse OF passion. it tears eff its
mask and forgets its rules. When we
said just now that there were no COM
mon people except commonplace people,
we meant merely that there is no COM
mon mold or brand Of human nature.
Twins are not so nearly alike that their
mothers do not know them apart, and
nothing a destroy the impress of in
dividuality but academic restraint and
social discipline. 1t is variety Of talent
and taste that makes the necessary di-
vision of labor the JOYOUS activity of
progress. and it IS the natural oppose
tion OF t-emperaments that endows hui
man intercourse with its chief charm.
Nothing could be more stale, fat and
Improbable than a symposium Of inter-
~locutors who all thought and felt alike
on every imaginable subject
The fash ef Wit. the bright intelligence
The beam Of song. the blaze OF eloquenc-.
are provoked by the contrast and the
conflict of independent minds occupying
different points Of view.