Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1886 — Plain Mr. [ARTICLE]

Plain Mr.

It is quite refreshing amidst the variety and signification of titles which men assume or by which they are ad-J dressed according to station, aecident or circumstances, to meet the plain unassuming designation of manhood. Especially is it so when applied in its genuine character-and expressiveness to those pre-eminent for, their worth and intelligence, but who may never have attained aUyfictitious recognition to some title through official position or public station. The application of titles, significant and insignificant, is well enough perhaps as custom goes, in a majority of cases ; but it has long lost much of its force through the absence of meritorious character or high moral or intellectual worth, or even average ability which it was originally supposed to imply. With our lohg lists of honorables, esquires, and military designation without limit, how few there are that really express anything consistent, with the true meaning of the application ! j ; They are often very vainly accepted and borne on the Strength of some position that was supposed to warrantthem, but they convey no idea of worth and expressiveness in many cases, even to those who use them in addressing the hearers, more than the tinsel and adornments of a stage dress-does the character of the wearer. A service in one branch of our State Legislature or in the office of mayor of a little city, gives the title of honorable, though tiie position. from the' clTCUnretances of one’s election or of his public sendees may be radically at variance with any sense of honor. * Military titles gained through an assumption of a rank never held, or services in a.torchliglit procession in a political campaign, or in peaceful staff attendance upon the Governor in visits to fairs and cattle shows, eheat real rank and service of their merit for the sake of the empty honor to the fictitious holders of titles. Many seek those petty offices and appointments not for the pleasure or profit, bat for the vain glorious titles which they eqpect to carry thereby through life. The plain Mr. of Wendell Phillips was the prefix by which he is best known and by which he .preferred to be addressed, And one eminent leading banker, just deceased, whose virtues and abilities, whose moral and pecuniary wealth gave him the highest position in the hearts of~ his fellow citizens, was generally mentioned with the. same modest title, which expresses all that is essential for true honor and manliness when character stands behind it. The honorables of our ward and city politics, the esquires of our country villages, the colonels of- our cross roads, yield after all in real popular esti-

illation to the plain aud (sturdy appellation that (shines by no borrowed light and exprorfaep w ith wiflieient dignity tiie aiaaeuline character which cannot be ennobled hy the application of a misapplied handle to the namgj,— Bouton Courier,