Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1837-12-06
M s G 4 x.
From the Illinois Monthly Magazine.
THE USEFUL MAN.

Jenny GosSamer was the only son
of a respectable tradesman, who grew
rich by his skill and industry in his
business, and who might with proprie-
", be said to have been a man oil most
excellent habits, for he vas an emil
nent tailor. Perhaps | should have
said a mems mercer, for, it is a curl
GUS trait of human nature, that even
those who are not too proud TO labor,
are often too vain TO be called by their
right names. In our republican coun.
try, and in an age when the operative
classes are really achieving the prou-
dest triumphs which adorn the pages
of history, it is singular to see the am
bilious articles, by which common &C.
equations are attempted to be concea-
led under dignified names. Formerly
q shoemaker was content to be called
a cobler, but now he is elevated to a
cordwainer the tinker is a tin plate
worker; and one half of the black.
smiths in the country have the title of
engineer. So let it be /; a name costs
nothing, and does nobody any harm.
But old Gossamer was one of those
who cared very little what people cal.
led him, provided they called often,
and we're %punctual in the payment of
their bills. He sat on his shopboard
from morning till night, and worked
like a man-from the expiration ofhis
apprenticeship till the age of sixty-fve.
He grew rich apace, and with wealth,
came a train Of honors. He was made
n Bank Director, a member OF the CT
ty Council, and President of a Fire
Company (; but so far from being sedu-
ced by these distinguished marks of
public favor, he continued to flourish
his scissors to the last, with %unwearied
assiduity, and with a humility which
the brightest smiles of fortune never
for a moment subdued. He seemed to
have taken the measure of his own
mind, and to have cut his coat accor-
ding to his cloth.
1t is a curious law of nature, or of
society, that a father who reaps an a.
bundant harvest of this worlds pros
perity, by means of his own honest ex-
e%rtions, Is most usually very careful TO
prevent his son from following his ex-
ample. 1t is not uncommon to see men
spending long lives Of usefulness and
virtue, and to no other end than that
of rearing their offspring in the oppo-
site vices. In the management of his
business, Mr.. Gossamer never showed
opv, ,yopf nf prudapca or Indecent L..
was always as sharp as a needle. The
training Of his son was another affair.
He could never bring himself to the
belief, that his hopeful heir was cut out
TO be a tailor, and as the youth showed
no genius for any other calling, he
wisely determined TO breed him up a
gentleman. There is no character
more eagerly coveted in our simple re-
publican land, than that Oft gentleman.
An honest farmer, or a mechanic, will
work harder than a slave all his life,
and deny himself a thousand enjoy
ments, in order to have the gratifca-
ton of seeing his only son a gentle.
man. And what is a gentleman? In
this country, if he be not less, he is not
more than another. Gentility does not
endow any man with a new faculty,
or an exclusive privilege. A gentle
man has all the wants, frailties, appe.
tltes, vices, and passions, of other men.
suffers under the same diseases, en-
dures the same misfortunes, and dies
the same death. He has but one life.
but n vote, IL cannot, lawfully, have
but one wife. He must a and sleep,
wear clothes, cut off his beard ard take
physic, as well as a clod hopper. In
other countries, a gentleman is suppo-
sed to inherit and transmit, a pUrer
blood than hat which flows in the veins
OF his fellow creatures, and he enjoys
some privileges which amount to SUBJ
stantlal advantages. But, alas where
Is the man in our land-yea, even the
proudest and most ~aristocratic, who
a look back upon his ancestry, with
out stumbling upon a dingy blacksmith,
a tricky pedlar, or a fDtid apothecary;
or can look forward to the career of
his offspring, without, in the brightest
dreams, being forced to see some of
them humblcd TO the most plebian &C.
equations To be a gentleman, then, in
the sense that weusethe word, amounts
TO nothing more than to be idle, and
that title is q convenient one, to dislln-
guish those who have no occupation,
from the useful classes of society,"
Having labored hard all his life, he
imagined it would be a great privilege
to live without work, and as his son
would have an ample fortune, he deter
mined tina: he should spend it as he
pleased.
Jenny was accordingly the best
dressed youth in town. He Don be-
came a leader ofthe fashions; for whe.
never the old gentleman wished to in.