Newspapers / The Democratic Signal (Raleigh, … / Nov. 10, 1843, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Democratic Signal (Raleigh, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
rr urn n UULb 0 VOLUME 1. RALEIGH, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1843. NUMBER 21. 1 fiiFPIiiilfERAHP Q " :;T-. ' :" ' " .' "v"'! -" . ' ; U : " " TfiRMS. J The DtMocHAncSiG:fALi published week ly, in the Cityof Raleigh, at ONE DOLLAR per annum cash. i 'PERRIN BUSBEE; rJiinrM DUNCAN K. McRAE, $ auors' WESLEY WHITAKER, Jr. Printer. From Chamber' Edinburgh Journal. TOADYISM IN ENGLAND. .Modern fashionable society finds it con Yemeni to have whimsical softened names for a number of things, which good nature and the subdued tone of polite Iifej forbid to be. spoken of in the plain Speech used by our ancestor?. The kind of person whom Hor ace and Juvenal would have described as a servile parasite, is now, therefore, delicately hinted at by the appellation of toadeater. An anecdote is told as the origin of the term. A great personage, .wishing to get quit of a troublesome h inger-on.caused a dish of toads to be served up one day instead of a dish of fish. The intention was seen; but the de pendent knew too well the value of the con nexion which he had established to take the hint He partook of the lords with all the appearance of relish, never Ietlincr it be pre sumed that he thought them anything but good souls. Thereafter, any one who was content to live on the bounty of another, at the expense of a few occasional insults, was said to cat that person's toads to be in short a toad-eater. The story, j it-must be owned, reads a goo'd deal like some of the ancient fables which are told as to the origin of things but however this may be, certainly for the last fifty years', the mean spirited dependent of the great, who clings where he. is hardly welcome, and endtavors to repay worthless arors by worthless obsequiousness, has been ' called a toad eater. Lnt'.erly the word has undergone ft sof leninjr process. Toad-eater sounded alarm ing and awakened unpleasant ideas. It was therefore reduced to the more obscure and inoffensive form of toady a term which serves quite as well where it is understood. But the sense of the world has at jthe same time been extended. It is now employed to describe all undue demonstrations of a cring. fng and worshipping spirit towards superior rank and station. It is to be observed, that the change of the word itself has been atten ded with the advantage of allowing it to be usel in various grammatical relations Thus it is employed not only as a noun, ('A toady ,') but nlso as an adjective.f'Miss James was very toady to Lady Tomlinson.) and furthermore as a verb. ('These Higgmses toady every body.1) Finally, the practice of toadying acquires the appellation j placed at the head of this anicle. Toady having in this way attained the dignity of a full blown word, we may expect to see it introduced in the course of a few hundred I years into the dictionaries of the English language. Toadies, of whatever set age, or condi tion, are easily distinguished. The person of highest rank, superior toj themselves, is for the time their magnetic pole. ; Towards him their countenances are bent, like flow ers to the sun: whether speaking to him or any other person in the room, tfyeir voietrs are pitched in a low and insinuating keyjand the whole deportment is expressive of wop ship. The deference paid to his remarks, the ready smile or laugh in attendance upon his faintest attempts at wit, Jthe eagerness to h elp, to serve, to gratify, are tut what has been described appropriate to the charac ter since the origiri of literature.' j The toady will, if allowed, de7cte himself entirely to the object of his worship for! the time, neg ecting all others. Not cveu the host or host ess recieve any share of his regards. And fnppojing the object is ajlady, bow happy and blest is be if he can manage to be the person who leads her oat when she is to leave the room. His "make way" on such an occasion, and the energy , with which he pushes aside! all obstructions, are most re markable. His passion takes perhaps its most striking form when it is manifested to wards a person who, from age or any other natural characteristic, would not, but for rank, receive an average degree of attention such, for instance, as a child of title, and that perhaps a spoilt and petulent on. And this case becomes the more striking when the worshipper,' as often happens, is a. person who himself enjoys no ir.ean place in public esteem as a man of letters, science, or offi cial eminence, or even as merely a man of wealth. We hare seen a very grave and el derly philosopher acting this character to wards a little imp of rank, trying'his very best to gratify it in all its whims, and endu ring all its ! aggressive rudeness with the greatest complaisance; thus committing sui cideupon a dignity which no tother person would have ever thought of tBmpering with. The press has, of course, its toadyisms, from its highest walks down to an Irish newspa per report, that 'Colonel Tims, of Tims Cas tie, and lady, have quitted the Shelborne ho. tel, wiih a party for Killbathershin v where the AuausTJL?J party propose to enjoy a few days' shrimp fishiner.1 The whole class of fashionable novels were an emanation of the i spirit of toadyism, and we have little doubt that certain metropolitan publishers could exhibit n regularly formed tariff, showing the additions which they make to the price of manuscripts in proportion to the titles of their real or pretended authors. Nor are reviewers wanting who go folly into Johnson's idea that when a nobleman attempts so laudable an action as to compose, a book, his merit should be handsomely acknowledged. --Cer tainly some! living literary lords havenc rea. son to complain in this respect. . Toadyism shioe strongly out even where there is no object of worship present. It ap pears in the exhibition cf the address cards of persons of superior rank on tables or chimney pieces, as implying that these persons are vis iting frieods also in a dexterous, though transparent system of mailing" freqaent alio sions to these persons in conversation, as be traying: the fact of their being met with every day. Of course ihose who legitimately be long to an elevated grade in society, may be reasonably expected to make such allusions; in them no one thinks of remarking it as at all peculiar. It is ooly when it is done by indi viduals of a somewhat lower grade, and who may be presumed to have an ambitious or ser vile motive for it, that it attracts attention. And in these cases there is always something that creates an absolute distinction !rotn those in which it is legitimate. The display of the ' i i great names is seen to ne more siuuiea. Toadies go glaringly out of their way to get a reference made to the name of one. of their iJols. Thev lav clans foriu You can some- 4 limes see it comingon from afar, through va rious other subjects of remark, and their is of ten something malapropos about it, as when Lord James is quoted for a panegyrical remark on Allen's last picture, who is notoriously stu pid on all subjects, art included; or Lady Bar bara's praise of Libitsky' new quadrids is ad duced, the fact being, as every body know Lady flab cannot distinguish one tune from another. Then everything they hear from a man or woman of rank is recounted with a regular quotation of the name, as Lord Tom boy told roe the other day that Sir James was going to give up his hounds, or the Countess of Puffington assures me that the court will not go to Windsor till the 12ih. They my have heard the same thing from three or four other persons; but the title or landed person is always preferred as an authority, albeit that person may not be the most notorious for ac curacy ; THE CLOC K MAKER, Or Sayings ard Doing of Sam Slick. A BROKEN HEART. The people talk an everlastin' sight of nonsense about wine, women, and horses. I've bought and sold ni all. 1 I've, traded in all on 'era;' and I tell you, there aint one in a thousand that knows a grain about either on 'em. Yod hear folks say, 'Ob, such a man is an ugly-grained critter. He'll break his wife's heart. " Jist as?fa woman's hear was a brittle as a pipe stem. The female heart, as far as my experience goes iy jist like a new india rubber shoe. You may pull and pull at it till it stretehes out a yard long, and then let go, and it will fly righ back to its old shape. Their hearts are made of stout leather, I tell you. There's a plaguy 'sight of wear inj 'em. 1 never know'd but one case of a broken heait, and that was in tother sex- one" Washington Banks. He was a sneezer. He was tall e nough to spit down on the heads of your grenadiers, and near about high enough to wade across Charlestown river, and as strong as a tow-boat. I guess he was somewhat less than a feel longer that the moral law, and chatechism too. He was a perfect picter of amah. You could'nt fait him in any par ticular, lie was so just a made critter.folra used to run to the winder when he passed, and say, there goes Washington Banks; beant he lovely.' I do believe there was'nt a gal in the Lowell factories that wan't in love with him. Sometimes at intermission, on Sabbath days,. when the all came out together, (an amazin hansome site, too, near about a whole congregation ot young gals,) Banks used to say, 'I vow, young ladies,'! with I had. five hundred arms to reciprocate one with each of you; but I reckon I have a hrart big enough for you all -it's a whap per, you may depend, and every mite and morsel of it. Is at your service.' VV1I, how you do act, Mr. Banks,' half a thousand little clipper-clapper tongues would say, all at the same time, and their dear little eyes a spark- lio, like so many stars twinklin in a frosty night. . - ' . . Well, when I last see'd him, he was all skin and bone, like a htrse turned out to die. He was tee-totally defleshed a mere walking skeleton. I am dreadful sorry.saya I, to see you, Banks, , looking so peeked ; why you look like a sick turkey-hen, all legs; what on airth ails you? I am dying, says he, of a broken heart. What, says I, have he gals been jilting yau? Nt, no, says he, I bean't such a fool as that, neither. Well, says I, have you made a bad speculation ? No, says he, shaking his baad, I hope I have ou much clear grit in me,- to take on so bad for that. What under the sun is it then r said l. v ny, says ne, i made a oet me tore part of summer with LeftenantObyKnowIes, that I could shoulder the best bower of the Constitution frigate. I won my bet: but the anchor, it was so eternal heavy, it broke my heart. Sure enough, he did die that very "ill; and he was the only instance 1 ever heard tell of a broken heart. Lord Morpeth says. "You may take the word of one who speaks from experience ot the matter, that in frank and cordial hospitality to the guest and stranger, John the elder Bull. must work bard to come up to Jonathan, the usty yearljng." - How many hundreds of human beings in this world have died in poverty and wretch edness, from the fact of their having been aught that labor was degrading!- Oh! what a shame,1 and still. we see this idea taught in he 19th century. . (Tennessee Agriculturalist. - From the Pehnsjlvanian. Metaphysical In one of BrownsonV articles in the Democr3tic "Review ,' about the 'Origin of Government, the following passage occurs, in an attempted definition of humanity: ' ;. ! . - v ' ! - ; We are to bear in mind that the genusHu" manity what we call human nature is no logical abstraction, but a real existence, and 1 in8omesort,an existence independent of in dividuals. This is only saying that human ity is humanity. Humanityin this generic sense, is causative, active, creative. " Tina is affirmed in affirming that humanity is a real- ' ity. Our notion of reality isour "ncttoa of being or substance, or something that ie.- But our notion of something that is tbrt io to say, of being or substance, is precisely osr notion of cause or causative force. I This perhaps is as fine a thread of cam;!-' ity as if were spun by some transcendental Archne, and we are not surprised that $ur friend of the Wilkesbarre Farmer sboald have been induced, on reading it, to exercise hie reasoning powers somewhat after the same formula, in the subjoined exquisite de finition of .humbug,' which he adds to Zlr, Browmon's humanity,'! as a logical cora pacion. 'Humbug' has recently been clcca- '. edas the fourth estate in the social and po litical fabric, and a critical analysis pi the thing itself, was a desideratum which has admirably supplied in the passage quoted below: , .. v We are to bear in mind that the genus humbug what we call natural humbugis no logical abstraction, but has a real ezisw tence as much as a shad. and in soaie sort, - independent of fodder and friends just after being elected to a faf office, though never ac tually separable from individuals before elec-1 tioni This is only saying that humbug is still humbug any way you choose to fix it. This part of the weather being, settled, we will venture a step or two further. Humbug in this pepper and ginger sense, is causative: of much gammon, active as the greased end of perpetual motioD, creative of promises, end pancakes.; This is both sworn to and aar- tned in affirming that humbug is a member of the regular army. Our notion of beinja member of the regular army is our faith in factions and faith the substance of Lbmgs hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But our notidn of something that is; is our notion of a jackass: for a jackass, is arid not only is, that is to say, is; but a jackass,; . physically considered, conveys precisely our notion of cause, kicking; and causative force, and exists independent of individuals so does a meeting house j Thomas W. Dorr has been arrested in Providence, P. I. He arrived in that city on the 29th uk and was arrested by the de puty shmiT, Mr. Potter, while passing the afternoon with a party of friends at the hoow of Col. Simcn. 'Mr. Potter, says theChron icle. 'as received by Dorr with'a smile,wh on learning his errand, (which we presarae he must have guessed at once ioio mm ne was ready toeo with him. 1 he party then came down stairs, Mr. Potter leading, and got into a carriage which had been drawn up before tne coor. i nere was nottnesiignt- et excitement. r - The carriage drove tojthe State Prison, where Mr. Dorr remains,1 at least for the pres- enf. He loose uncommonly wen anu oore himself, as he got into the carnage, with coo 1 siderable dignity. The party drove off from the door, Mr. Dorr and Mr. Poller, the sheriff, talking pleasantly tegether. vf Twistification.ttFaihtx wants you to send n'm two yards of black broadcloth; he don't ; care what color it , is, and when he kills his pig last week he'll pay. you what you owe 1101.
The Democratic Signal (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Nov. 10, 1843, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75