The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-10-15
The Changes Of Life.

Not a day older do we grow without per-
ceiving that, while to some, life wears an
equitable aspect, and every days concerns
are so regular, that they may be almost post
cd in a ledger and expressed in numerals
to others there is a constant succession of
events which are curious, strange and roman
tic. From our own brief experience we could
produce a series of pictures that would be
full of light and shade, of sunshine and dark
ness, of brilliant and gloomy horizons. We
fortunate in business, though possessing great
tact and high integrity, until they reached
the meridian of life. Their indomitable cour-
age and good character at last enabled them
to stem the adverse tide, and they are en-
rolled among the most wealthy Of our citizens,
On the other hand, we have seen the heads
of houses, whose operations extended all
over the world, whose residences were
palaces, whose equipages were princcly,
afterwards living in poverty and seclusion,
and receiving the reluctantly doled pittance
of some wealthy connection as their only
means of subsistence. Families of the high
est influence and wealth have entirely dis
appeared from observation, while those
originally in the very mcanest of employ
ments now attract the public eye with the
gorgeousness of their equipage, and the sty-
fish character of their residences.
There is among the upper ten thousand of
New York a very handsome and fashionable
parsonage, who has associated and lived with
the English nobility on terms of friendship,
and whose husband has been honored with
some high trusts of an official character by
the British Government, who was some years
ago a milliner in this city.
There is on the other hand, a ~virtuous and
excellent lady who in youth was the charm
of the gayest circles in New York, and yet
now maintains herself by her needle, and by
the skiltul use of her pen-a lady whose soci-
ETY. was courted by the rich and the great,
and whose relations (somc of them at lcas)
are now remarked for their show and habit
ual display.
There are merchants in this city who a
few years ago could not get credit for fifty
cents, and are now rich others who recover
ed themselves m~anfully from their embarrass-
ments, and yet whose paper was often thrust
under their noses before it had matured at a
proftered discount OF a most alarming amount.
There are cashiers not a thousand miles off
from us who swept out and made the fires in
the first banks they were ever inside Of
There are others who have welded millions
of capital that are now barely able to exist.
The former wife of a steamboat steward is
now living in splendor with a husband worth
a half a million Of dollars. What is the NOR
al of all this, and what should be the deduc-
tons from such curious facts as these :?
One unquestionably is never to despair
There are some people who have high moral
and constitutional courage, and act on the
principle that while there is life, there is
hope. These look at the scenes before them,
and know they are forever changing. They
are determined, therefore, to play their part,
sometimes they have been at fault,
and needed the prompter. There are thou
and tens of thousands of these persons
the world who seem to conquer their fate.
They make in the end the more useful cit.
.zens, having gained that experience, the
want of which caused thier past difficulties.
Neg York SUH.>