The story about Chief Justice Marshall has been told a good
many times, but will bear telling again. As he was taking a
morning walk, plainly drest, he encountered a young man who was
standing at a market stall, evidently in great perplexity. A
basket of moderate size was before him and he was saying to the
market-man: “I wonder where all the niggers are this morning. I
can’t find any one to carry my basket home.” The Chief Justice
said: “Where do you live?” “No. 200 Avenue A,” was the reply.
“Well,” he said, “as I am going your way, I will carry your
basket for you.” They started, the judge carrying the basket.
The young man noticed that the people they met all bowed very
politely to his volunteer porter, and wondered who he could
be. The basket was deposited at the door. Pay was offered, but
refused. What did it mean? The next day, while walking with a
friend, this young man saw his volunteer porter in a group of
lawyers. He asked: “Who is that plain old fellow that they are
all listening to?” “John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United
States.” “He carried my market-basket home for me yesterday;
why do you think he did it?” “To teach you the difference
between a real gentleman and a snob,” was the caustic reply. If
some of these modern aristocrats who consider labor degrading
had gone into the carpenter-shop of Joseph about A.D.
28 or 29, and seen a young man named Jesus at work there, they
would have decided at once that he was no gentleman. If they had
gone into the rooms of Aquilla at Corinth, a few years later,
and seen Paul sewing on tents (“For he abode with them and
wrought,” Acts 7:3), they would have despised him because his
hands ministered to his necessities. They would not have gone
into the synagog next Sabbath to hear that tent-maker preach.
No, indeed! Now, can a standard of gentility that excludes Hon.
John Marshall, Apostle Paul, and our adorable Savior be a true
one?--OBADIAH OLDSCHOOL, _The Interior_.
(1210)
=Gentle Auxiliaries=--See HANDIWORK OF NATURE.
=Gentleman versus Snob=--See GENTILITY, FALSE STANDARDS OF.
=Gentlemanliness=--See KINDNESS.
=Genuineness, Tests of=--See TESTS.
=Germs, Moral=--See SIN, SUBTLETY OF.