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What Is A "gentleman?"

What Is A "gentleman?" image
Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
June
Year
1862
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

1 wo great errors , coluring, or ral her discoloring scveral ly, the muida of the tugher and lower oiMgei, have sov.n widu disseusion and wider misfortuue tkrough tbe society of modern days. Thesö er10rs are i oir modas of iuterpretiue tbe word " gentleman." lts prima], liternt and perpetual meaning is, " a maij of pure race," wcll bred, in the seiiHe thnt a horse or dog is well bred. The so called higher classes, being generally of purer race than the lower, have retaiDed the tiue idea, aud the convietions associated with it, but are afmid to speak it out, aud equivócate about it in public : tuis equivocaron mainly proeecds from their desire to connect unother menninrr with it, and a falso one- that of " a man living in idlonesa on othcr people.s' labor" - with wLich idea the term has nothhifi whatever to do. The lower classes denying vigorously, and with reusou, the Botton that a gentleman mearía an dier, aud riflhtly feeling that the more any one worka the more of a gentleman he becomes, nnd is likely to become - have uevertheless pot littlc oí the good they otherwiso might from the truth, becauso with it they wantod to hold a falsehood, namely, that race was of no consequence; it be.ng of precisely of as much consequence in man as in any other animal. The nation cannot truly prosper ti 11 both these errors are hially got rid of. Gentlemen havo to lcarn that it it is no part of their duty or privilege o livu on other people'a toil. They have to learn that tbere is no dug. radation in tho liardcst manual, or the liumblegt servilc labor, when it is honcst. ]5ut there is degradatiou, aad that deep, in extravaganee, in bribery, in ])ride, in taking places they are not fit for, or in coining plaecs for which thcre is uo need. It does not disfrace a gentleman to buoome an errand boy, or a day laborer, but it dwgraces Lim muuh to beoomo knnve or a tiiief, and knavery is not tliu less knavery beeauso it involvos great interests, uor the''t the loss theft because it is eountenaneed by usage or accoiupnniod by failure in uiidertaking duty. It is an itieomparably lesa uilty form of robbery to cut a purso out of a man's pocket, than to take it out of his hand on the understatiuing you are to stcer hia sbip up the cut)HeI wtitre yuu do uot know the sound ings. On the otlu-r hand, the lower orders, and all odier orders, have to learn that everj rmnm liabit and elironic disca.so eouuuuutmlM iUelf by dcs.cciit, and thut by pui'ity ot birth the eutire systjiu of the human body may be gradually eluvated, or by recklossncss of birth, degraded, until tlicre shall be as i)iuc!j difterence botwceu the well brod and ül brod huniau creature (whatover paius inay be tiiken with tliL'ir edueanton) as bet ween a wolfhound aud the vilest moiigrel car And the knowledge of this gre.it tact ouht to regúlate the cduuation of our youth, and the et) tire co:iduet of ths natiou. -

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus