The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-04-02
THE GENTLEMAN.

1t is sometimes well to remember
that the truest gentleman who ever
walked this earth was born in a sta
BILE and worked at the carpenters
bench. He had royal blood in his
veins, but his mother was nearer
peasant than queen. He grew up in
a provincial town whose i'll fame
had passed into a prOverb. His
friends were fishermen and he broke
bread with the low caste Publican.
Yet in the home of the rich Pharisee,
not Simon but Jesus was the gentle
man and Simon received a rebuke for
~neglecting the ordinary usages of
hospitality which he never forgot.
Nor was Jesus unmindful of the
usages of society. 1t was against
his disciples and not him that the
Pharisee brought the charge of eat
ing with unwashen hands. 1t was
the gentleman who, all through his
life, showed that consideration for
others which is the distinguishing
mark of the class consideration for
women, sympathy in their Affections
and regard for their helpleSsness 4;
tenderness for the little ones; self
sacrifice for his friends. 1t was the
gentleman who said to the soldiers,
If ye seek me let these go their way {;
who put royal, inquisitive HerOd to
the blush by dignifed silence who
made PLATE uncomfortable by the
simple sincerity of his character and
evident reading of Pilates motive );
who showed fOrbearance to his exc
c%utioners and compassion to the
thief beside him while in his dying
agony he declared in a word his no
BILE trust in his friends and his ten
derness for his mother, saying, Wo-
man, behold thy son and to John,
Behold thy mother!
We are conscious, perhaps in read
ing this, that the word has been
fearfully abused. 1t was formerly
used of those who occupied Il certain
rank whatever their other qualiica-
tiOns. With the e~qualizing tenden-
cies Of our WI country it has been
a word to be claimed by every one
as his right, the assertion that "a man
is no gentleman generally resulting
in the violent proof of the asser-
ton. Not every man of gentle
blood is a gentleman, nor is every
one who has attained a certain posi-
ton in society. There is no birth so
humble that a man cannot become a
a gentleman and there is no name so
obscure that a gentleman may not
wear it. While exalted station often
serves to make conspicuous the bOor
and the cad.
S~elf-respect is one of the essentials
of gentlemanliness. 1t keeps a man
from doing anything that is low or
mean 1t throws arounds his speech
and actions restraints that are all
the more powerful because they are
self imposed. He would die rather
than do those things which involve
a loss of s~eIf-respect, because his self
is more valuable to him than his
life.
And the second essential is consid-
grafton for others, for their feelings,
their interests and even for their in
frmities.
Rear Admiral Sampson has in
jured himself irr~etrievabIy with the
American people. There was a nu-
merOus body of his fellow country
men who believed that he was emit
tied to the chief honor for the naval
victory at Santiago, as he would
have been mainly responsible if the
Spanish Fleet had demolished or es-
capped the American. There Is little
doubt that he would have been &c
corded a higher place at first if he
had been more generous toward his
rival in his reports of the battle.
But the other day he wrote "a letter
which, unfortunately for him, was
published, saying that only the grad
mates Of Annapolis were entitled to