The morning call., 1890-07-22
" OF NO CONSEQUENT E."
That Is What Is Said About the
Attacks on Mrs. Mackay.

We are surprised that Mrs. Mackay pays
any attention to the malicious people who
are circulating stories in England that she
was washerwoman in her early days on
the Pac iic 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 discreditable to her
in the fact that she turned her hands to
honest work.
Washing clothes is as honorable as dig
ging gold, and the employment was one OF
the few in which self-respecting woman
could engage in California at that period.
Women of the region, who have since be-
come the possessors of great fortunes, were
once vigorous laborers at the washtub, If
not for others, at least for their own fami-
lies. Would it be charged against them as
a reproach that they did the family cook
ing? In what respect is the family wash
ing less creditable? II may be less agree
able, but it is necessary, and there is moth
ing low or degrading in keeping clean. Ii
q housewife cannot hire servants Tor the
labor because of the lack of supply or be-
cause OF her lack of money, OF course she
must herself preside at the Washtuo. Ii
she was a poor woman and had TO earn
money for her support, washing probably
was the most remuneratlve 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 washerw oman, she would have no reason
to blush over that episode in her career, and
no one except a snob or malicious gossip
would seek TO bring it up against her in her
days of atf1uence. Everybody in the aristo-
cratic society which she enjoys knows very
well that she is not of ariStOcratic birth her.
self. She could not be, for there is no arIs-
tocracy in this republic into which she
could be born; ana such social gradlngs as
We have here are of no consequence IN an
aristocratic country. The distinctions are
merely between wealth and poverty, breed.
ing and Vulgarty; ard II the heredlty oil
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, Tor In
stance. indicate that the ancestors OF some
of the people now most prominent III fash
ion were in humble places. They were
small traders, craftsmen and modest cltl-
zens, who must have kept up domestic eS-
adjustments on scale so frugal that prob
ably the housewives assisted at the family
washing. SO it is with that larger body OF
people of social consequence whose pro-
genitOrs came from the country districts OF
New England or other States. Before the
great Irish migration, between 1910 and
1850, the daughters Of farmers oftentlme5
thought 1t no degradation to so out to ser
vice, and they were treated by their el1l-
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 limitations that lie Is of lOWly
origin, according TO the standards OF an
ariStocratic society, Hence 1t is silly to
undertake to apply such standards to our
society, made up almost wholly OF the de-
scendants Of people who were altogether
outside of the aristocracy of the countries
from which they emigrated. They can only
pride themselves on having come from
strong and honest stock, and that what
social elevation they have attained is due
to their own merits, and the efforts OF their
immediate ancestors. Everybody under
stands that abroad. and that pretense that
it is different proYokeS only the ridlcule
il deserves.
The American must 90 for what heis HIM
self, not for what his ancestors were; and
fortunate it is for our Four Hundreds that
it is so. If their heredity were tested
by the standards of arist0cracies they
ton is that they are citizens OF democratic
republic The lines of arist0cracy, as they
are drawn in arStocratic countries, do not
exist for them. 1t does not matter whether
they were Washerwomen or the children OF
VasherwOmen; they are to be Judged and
graded as they are in their individual and
intrinsic quality.
Whether Mrs. Mackay was or was not a
washerwOman is of no consequence. The
important fact is that she is now 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.-N. \. Sun.