Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1845-12-18
AVARICE.

IT'S pitifM to see how love of gain will
cramp the soul, turn true nobleness out OF
doors, set generosity to guard iron safes.
and treat veneration with absolute insult.
We have known some men, miserable gill
measures of humanity, who would squeeze
sixpence till it squealed, before they would
give it to plant smile in the heart of po-
verify, or TO so0the one sorrow that was
eating there. Yes, we have known such
and there are those who would narrow the
'shroud that wraps the dead--mourn more
for the expense of funeral than for the
event which caused it, and plough up the
graves of their fathers to find shilling I'm.
der their coffin. Certain tits there are those
we know, for we have seen them-whc
would turn their cattle in upon the sacred
enclosures of the dead, to trample over the
dust of their reverend fathers, and the green
hlllocks of their slumbering children, for
the petty gain of that very heritage which
was nourished by the decay of their kin
dred Truly, it would seem as if the dead
could not sleep under such indlgnlty, but
would start from their graves, and with their
stony eyes, haunt their sacrilegious insult
ers till they had frightened them into some
thing like humanity.
This is a dollar-and-a-cent age, and we
are dollar-and-a-cent nation. Pecuniary
considerations are the first to be attended
to, and have more weight than all others
The "almighty dollar" is worshipped upon
every high place, and under every green
tree. Whatever offers profit is eagerly en-
braced, and closely pursued but whatever
investments we make at the suggestion of
our generous feeling, are considered an
equal loss. We are so utilitarian in our
principles, that nothing of the present is re-
garded which does not turn so much per
cent; and little that hallows the venerable
past, unless it can in some way be trans
muted into cash. The pick-axe and spade
are ringing on the rocks of Bunker Hill,
converting it into place of traffic. 1t is
too great boon to be consecrated to liber-
ly and the past. A liberated country cam
not afford to make it holy ground forever,
though it has been baptized with the blood
Of heroes, in the name of the Goddess of
Liberty! What a libel upon the honor and
gratitude of America! How recreant does
it show her to the spirit of '76!
There is nothing we more thoroughly
despise, than pinching, screwing avarice.
We must confess that we had rather see a
man who is little spiced with villainy,
than man who is honest in everything,
and noble in nothing. Villainy may sub
sist with much that is naturally good, like
noxious weed among valuable plants; but
gripping avarice turns humanity out of the
soul and wallows in its own meanness. As
if conscious of its own deformity, it sell
dom looks into the glass-appears before
the world in the old cast-of coat of hon
esty, and calls itself by the very respectable
name of Economy. But in spite of its eau
lion, the tail and cloven foot are apparent,
and are rendered more disgusting by the al
tempt at concealment. Go! We poor souls
that prefer money to nobleness-make your
burrows at least six feet deep, for the world
above ground was made for men