The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-07-20
THE GENTLEMAN.

Annual Address Delivered by MIR. P. A.
Stovall, Of Savannah, Ga, at the Recent
| p. M. /. Commencement.
How many generations make gentle
man 7 How long does 1t take to evolve
from culture and wealth and training
that peculiar product of our civilization
of which we hear so much and see 80 lit.
tie? As the world goes, every man is 8
gentleman. The lawyer before the jury
box assumes, for the sake of his client,
that there are gentlemen before him.
The statesman on the stump takes it for
granted that every member of his party,
at least, is gentleman. Society accepts
every man as q gentleman until be shows
himself the contrary. You can find d
fight anywhere in this State by telling
the first man you meet, however absn'
doned or depressed you know him to be,
that he is no gentleman.
And yet a gentleman is not such 8
common article after all. Not every man
who wears fine clothes and shows good
manners is a gentleman. Notevery coin
bearing the words, "in God We trust"
is sound dollar, no matter how polished
or shapely. frequently it lacks the ring
and weight of an honest dollar. It may
not when melted down bring its face
value.
A gentleman has a dollars worth of
true metal in him. There is nothing
base or deceptive in his alloy. He may
be bright and we'll kept, or dull and
blunted by age, poverty or use; he may
not bear upon his face the sharp stamp
and showy eagle of his nation, but when
he is sounded or measured in any coun.
try in the world he proves that he is all
that he pretends to be.
Every nation has had its type of gen.
tlemen. He abounds in all history, and
digni6es every page OF literature. Bru'
tus Benedict and Hotspur we're gentle.
men of Shakespeare's creation. Nicho'
los Midleby and Tom Pinch aud Sidney
Coulton, of Dickens, were gentlemen,
and brave Col. Newcome, whom Thack.
cray has made immortal, was par excel
lence the gentleman. Fortunately for
mankind the gentleman has not been
rare. He has fourished in lands of snow
and lands of sun. BE is not confined to
class or continent. Jap or Rindo, Ma
lay or Caucasian, the gentleman 10
known by his words not by his nativity.
But if had to point out the perfection
of the gentleman should say he lived
in the South. Here in this land where
the skies are sunniest and the stars are
brightest; where flowers spring peren.
nial from the time that "spring winds her
merry hum to call them from their win
try bed; )" where nature is softer and
man more careful and considerate, here
time has built up from generations Of
good men and women that composite of
character, culture, courage and chivalry
which We call the gentleman. he has
been the occasion of much satire, the
object of some envy. He has been car.
ricatured-his broad hat, his long hair,
his efasive hospitality, his keen sense Of
honor, his quick sympathiea. His Pc
culiarities have been the butt of puritan.
ical reform, which assumes all virtue,
which tends to meddle in everybody's
affairs and make everybody good. His
provincialism, his lordly superiority may
have been at the bottom of the four years
war-the cause of the civil and political
revolution. Possibly the cornerstone of
the Confederacy was the Southern gen.
tleman, not the Southern slave.
The Southern gentleman was quaint
and provincial. He was trife lordly
and independent. His lineage Was long,
but his oaths were short; his coat and
his prejudices we're ample; his vest-coat
was as brightas his courage, and he loved
God and feared no man. He was quick
to pay his debts or to resent an insult.
He seldom failed to endorse a note for
his friend. He was ready to share with
his guest the product of smoke-house or
sideboard. He swore by Calhoun and
believed in the code. He lived very
numerously in South Carolina.
But We love the quaint old gentleman
for the enemies be has made. he had
little in common with the thrifty son of
New England, who planted his mill on
every stream and chased every rainbow
for its bag of gold. The two men were
antagonistic from their birth. The
hustling Yankee lad who beat the snow
from his boots and started out from his rug.
ged hills.to make his home In other fields,
"Where stern New Englaud's mother
ssnt him forth abroad, even as the eagle
shakes her fedglings from her back and
bids him seek the glories and the dangers
of the air." was. made of different stuff
from the leisurely Southern farmer, who
lived in green fields by the still waters
and followed his life in the same land
where his father and his grandfathers
and great grandfathers lived before him.
It was the Southern gentleman who
went out to meet Oglethorpe when be
landed, and with true courtier courtesy
| offered his help and his protection to es-
tablish the young colony of Georgia. 1t
WAS the Southern gentleman who met the
English at Cowpens and Kings Noun.
tain and dedicated this land to liberty.
It was the Southern gentleman who stir.
red up rebellion in the hornets nest OF
North Carolina, who signed the delara'
ton of Mecklenbu.g; it was Southern
gentleman who framed the Philadelphia
L IL