Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 349, 21 December 1891 — The Spirit of Democracy. [ARTICLE]

The Spirit of Democracy.

,The~ Eugli*h newspaper hare fceen with animation a question growing* $ut of a lawBuifc ih whieh a young wobaq. engaged as parlprmaid, at the ,end ©f aine days' sersioß wae iumlaiaiily disraissed, withoat be*» «ssse she refurfied to wear a eap. Her ernployer pleaded in his «fcele&se that tbe youqg woman had brokeu haf 6<mtrāct by. dispbeying lawfol orders. Tl *e <( J»dge orerraled the plea, and hd|d that, in the aheenee of any expr«w stipu!atxoti with regard to weariag a eap. the order was npt Uwful. The Tor3 r paper, ia comxaei}ting upon tye decisi*n, defend the employer and criticise the young woman as a «nob. Liberal papers. on the contrary, uj)hold the decision, urg- v ■ r that the of a eap - was demanded to braud social inferiority, and declajiiig that the ;.'o.ung woman eunp]y ebowed her * j if-respect m rdfqsiug to wear one. That Ooidsmith went about the street as a physician im a parple irlet suit, witfer a swoKl Jat his hide, and a gold headed eane, i?as > persoi2al idiosyncrasy; it was

' en Uie established garb of- the lii ofSsion. Judges were not allow- < 1 th lay aside tfceir wigs, xk>r lawvers their black coats. Glergymen went about tbe streets in their K r oVns, and mechanies of all sortg with their aprons. lt was the new ..spirit of democracy whieh put an end to this, and, by ban|Bhing distmctions of dress, aimed to recdgnize onlv those differftnces *!n meir whieh individual character and culture created. It is this democratic spirit in the Liberal Party to-day whieh noakes it unauimous n upholding the refusal of the maid-?ervant to wear the eap. l>emocratic equality does not mean the leveling down of men, but the leveling of the ground upon whieh tlwy stand, and the deetruction of thc artiicial barriers whieh aeparatc In other words, it is the tquality whieh is demandod by the principie of fratemity. — Chrhtian Ihiion. *