The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-08-25
English and American Gentlemen.


Harpers Bazaar.
There are two great defects in the
working Of the English theory that a gen.
tleman must never, under any circum-
stances. have worked with his hands.
The first is that il handicaps every one
who has so worked. and makes il harder
for him, even in the American sense. to
be gentleman. People are very apt TO
be what is expected of them. Assume that
a whole class VIII be clowns, and they
are more likely TO be so; assume that
they are to be gentlemen, you remove
half the obstacle 10 their success. Hence
much of the fextbilay OF American char
acter, it's ready adaptation. Since it
made no difference to anybody else that
Whittier had been in youth a farmers
boy in summer and in winter a shoe
maker 1t made no difference to him: and
nobody stopped 10 ask whether he had
sustained in childhood the same refining
influences with Longfellow and Lowell.
In New York. in Washington City, one
often encounters men who have in early
life worked with their hands. In England
these men would have carried for life the
stamp of that experience-some mis-
placed h. some Yorkshire burr would
have stamped them forever In America
the corresponding drawbacks have been
effaced and swept awoy. No doubt eli
mate and temperament have something
10 do with this difference. but the recog-
nized social theory has more. Ii grows
largely out OF the changed definition OF
the word gentleman" In America the
changed definition has let down the bars.
The word gentleman" denotes a class
that is henceforward accessible TO merit.
The other defect 90 The English stand
ard Is that IL perpetuates. even inside
those who rank as gentlemen. perpetual
feudaism, a wholly artificial standard OF
social subordination. This lasts even 10
he rNt.f nQry1r Inv
OF Anthony Trollope there IS an especial
chapter on the question. How liter
AIRY man should treat his social superiors'
IA chapter which is. TO an American 1T
erary man. first ludicroUs and then pa
thetic Walter Besant in his Fifty Years
Ago" enumerated the list of eminent au-
thors and scientists Of the Victorian Pc
Rod. and pointed with pride TO the fact
that they had had nothing 10 do with
the court OF Victoria. Now that he has
been knighted. he Is described as wearing
his title with an eXaltation that rather
amuses his friends. But the crowning IL
lustration OF the curious attitude gwen
by belated feudalism to the author is 10
he found in the lately published letters or
Sir Walter Scott. They are delightful in
all reSneets but one-the absolute self
subordination. the personal prostration,
with which he writes 70 every titled non
entity about him Men younger than him
self now utterly unknown 10 the world
AZ large were treated by this leading
Scotch intellect of his day as II they con-
ferred honor by letting him write To
them: and the very grace and naturainess
with which it Is done shows how ingram
II Is. To the chief OF his clan, especially.
Scott Is the humble minstrel for whom
tx IS honor enough 20 sit In the door
way OF his lece and Amuse that august
leisure. That this attitude was not nee
essary we know by the very different
tone OF Burns. but the facility with which
Scott fell into il shows tho strength OF the
feudsl tradition. while the attitude Of
Trollope and Besant shows that Il still
survives