New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1846-03-25
THE TRIBUNE.
The Poor Man-An Ideal Sketch.

or four weeks since seems to require this compan-
ioapiece, and we shall make the attempt, though
the subject is far difficult than the former
In the first place, we must state what we mean By
spooS man, for II ia a term Of wide range in lis
relative applications. painstaking artisan, train
ed to selfdenial and strict adaptation, no, Of his
means 10 his wants, but of his wants 10 his means,
finds himself rich and grateful if some unexpected
fortune enables him to give bis wife q new gown,
his children cheap holiday joys, and 10 his starving
neighbor a decent meal while George ~. when
heir apparent to the throne of Great Britain, con
adered himself driven by the pressure OF poverty
to become debtor, a beggar, swindler, and, BY
the aid of perjury the husband of two wives at the
same time, neither Of whom he treated well. Since
poverty is made excuse for such depravity In
conduct it would be well to mark The limits within
which self control and resistance to temptation may
be expected.
When he of the olden time prayed Give me
neither poverty nor riches" we presume he meant
,ha, proportion of means to the average wants of
human being which secures freedom from eating
cares, freedom of motion and moderate enjoyment
Of the common blessings offered by earth air, wa
Ter. the natural relations and the subjects for
thought which every day presents. We shall GER
ainly not look above this point for our poor man
Prince may be poor if he has not means TO relieve
the suferngs Of his subjects, secure,o them need
ed benefits. Or he may make himself so, just a
well paid aborer by drinking brings poverty to his
roof So may the Prince, by the mental gin of horse
racing or gambling, grow beggar, But we shall
not consider these cases.
Our subject will be taken between the medium
we have spoken of as answer to the wise mans
prayer, and that destituon which We must style in
hmous either to the individual or 20 The society
whose vices have caused that stage of poverty in
which there is certainty, and often probability,
oiwork or bread from day to day,-in which clean
Eness and all the decences of life impossible,
and the natural human feelings are turned 10 gall
because the finds himself on this earth in fer
worse situation than the brute. In this stage there
no Ideal, and from its abyss if the unforturates
look up 10 Heaven, or the state of things as they
ought 10 be- it is with sutiocating gasps which de-
nand relic or death. This degree ofpoverty s com
mon, as We all know, bat we who do not share il
have no right 10 address those who do from own
standard till we have placed their feet on own
level. Accused is he who does not long to have
this SOTO take out at least the physical He'll from
this world Unbest is he who is not seeking either
by though, or act to effect this poor degree of amel
grafton in the circumsta noes Of his
We take the subjec, of our sketch then, some
where between the abjectly poor and those in mod
S crate circumstances What we have to say may
apply to either sex and to any grade in this division
b .albe human family, from the hodma and wash
swoman up to the hard working, poorly paid law
( ger, clerk, schoolmaster or scribe.
The advantages of such position are many. In
he first place you belong, inevitably, to the active
and suffering part of the world. You know the ills
hMtry mems souls and bodies. You cannot creep
into safe retreat arroganty Judge or heartlessiy
forget the others, They are always before you;
you see the path stained by their bleeding feet; stu
pid aud hin,y, indeed must you be- ii you can has
lily wound or ndolenty orbear TO aid them Then
uto yourself, you know what your resour ces are
what you can do, what bear; there is small chance
Tor YOU TO escape well.tempered modesiy. Then
again, if you find power in yourself to endure the
trial there is reason and reality in some degree o.
sef reliance The moral advantages OF su oh training
can scarcely fail TO amount to hing and as &c
the mental, that most important chapter, how the
lives of men are fashioned and transtused by the
experience of passion and the development o.
thought, presents new sections at every turn, such
uthe distant dilettantis opera-glasses will never
de,ect-to say nothing Of the exercise OF mere acu
(which though nsensible in its daily course, leads
% results OF immense importance
But the evils the disadvantages the dangers how
many, how imminent True, indeed. they are So
There is the early bending Of the mind to the pro
ducuon OF marketable results, which must hinder
all this free play OF intelligence and deaden the pow
ess that craved instruction There is the callousnes>
produced by the sight Of more misery than it is pos
s5le TO relieve the heart nj first so sensitive, TAX
ng refuge in stolid Indifference agenst the pangs
sympathetic pain ii had not force 10 bear There
s,he perver,ing influence of uncongenal employ
nents, undertaken without or against choice ccnin.
aed q; unfit hours and seasons, till the man loses
bis natural relations with summer and winter d ay
snd night and has no sense more for natural beauty
and JOY There is the mean providence, the perpet
ual caution 10 guard agans; i'll instead of the gen
erops freedom Of mind which expects good 10 en-
sue from all good actions. There is the sad doub
whether II will do toiudulge the kindly impulse, ih
ejaculation Of dangerous chances and the cost be
tween the loving impulse and its fulhlment. Yes
'aer is bitter chance Of narrowness, meanness anc
dulluess ON this path, and ii requires great natura
force wise and large view of life taken at an earl,
age or ferveut trust in God to evade them
tits astonishing to see the poor. no less than III
rch, the slaves ofex,ernals. One would think that
where the rich man once became aware OF th'
woyhlessness Of the trappings OF life from LII
WEAKNESS OF spirit that found itself entirely dissai
ased after pomp and self.indugence, the poor MAI
woald learn this hundred times from The expe
hence how entirely independent of them is all tha
aintrinsically valuable In our life. But no The
poor man wants dignity. wants elevation OF spiri,
Ills his own servily tina, FORCES the letters that en-
aavehim. Wheiherh be cringe 10. rudely defy, the
man In the cosch and handsome coat, the cause ant
ettec, are the same BE is influenced by cos;um,
and position. he is not firmly rooted in the trutt
'ha, only in 50 far as outward beauty and grandeur
are representative OF the mind of the possessor
they count for anything a, all. Oh poor man got
are poor indeed, ii you feel yourself so poor if 20,
10 not feel No., 81 al I'D no