Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1829-11-10

my fathers house," eff were to live
my life over again, / would remain single
as long as | could, without the risk of be-
ing an old maid" How injudicious, how
short-sighted, is the policy which thus
mars the whole happiness of life, in or
der to make few brief years more CAV
and brilliant! / have known many in
stances of domestick ruin and discord
produced by this mistaken indulgence of
mothers; never kaeU but one vhere the
victim had moral courage enough to change
all her early habits. She was young,
pretty, and very amiable girl, but brought
up to be perfectly useless; rag baby
would, to all intents and purposes, have
been as efficient partner. She married
a young lawyer, without property, but
with good and increasing practice. She
meant to be a good wife, but she did NOT
know how. der wasiefullSess Invoices
him in debt. He did not reproach, though
he tried to convince and instruct her. She
loved him, and weeping replied, 81 try to
do the best can; but when | lived at
home mother always took care of every
thing" Finally, poverty came upon him
like an armed man - and he went into
remote town in the Western States to
teach school. His wife folded her hands
and cried while he, weary and discoura-
ged, actually came home from school to
cook his own supper. At last, his pa
thence, and her real love for him, impelied
her to exertion. She promised to learn
to be useful if he would teach her. And
she did learn! And the change in her
habits gradually wrought such change,
in her husbands fortune, that she might
bring her daughters up in idleness, had
not experience taught her that economy,
like grammar, is very hard and tiresome
study after we are twenty years old
Perhaps some will think the evils of
which | have been speaking are confined
principally to the rich but l am con-
vInced they extend to all classes of people.
All manual employment is considered de-
grading; and those who are compelled to
do it, try to conceal it. A few years since,
very respectable young men at our collie
ges cut their own wood, and BACKED their
own shoes. Now, how few, even of the
sons ofplain farmers and industrious me-
chancks have moral courage enough to
do without servant yet when they leave
college, and come out into the battle Of
life, they mast do without servants and in
these times it will be fortunate if one half
OF them get what is called "a decent liv-,
ing" even by rigid economy and patient
toll. Yet ! would not that servile and Ia
borious employment should be forced upon
the young. / would merely have each
one educated according to his probable
situation in life /; and be taught that what
ever is his duty is honorable; and that
no merely external circumstance can in
reality injure true dignity Of character. ]
would not cramp boys energies by COM
polling him always to cut wood, or draw
water, but I would teach him not to be
ashamed, should his companions happen
to find him doing either one or the other.
A few days since ! asked a grocer's lad
w OsHuS iOAuC SUilC dTLlCIcS L udu Just
purchased at his masters. The bundle
was large, he was visibly reluctant to take
it, and wished very much that l should
send for it. This, however, was impossi-
BILE; and he subdued his pride ; but when
| asked, him 10 take back an empty bottle
which belonged at the store, he, with
mortified look, begged me to do it up
neatly in paper, that it might look like a
small package. Is this boy likely to be
the happier for cherishing foolish pride;
which will forever be jarring against his
duties? Is he in reality one whit mere
respectable than the industrious lad who
sweeps stores, or carries bottles, without
troubling himself with the idea that all the
world is observing his little unimportant
self? For, in relation to the rest ofthe
world, each individual is unimportant
and he alone is wise who forms his habits
according to his own wants, his own pros
poets, and his own principles.
Massachusetts, Journal.