The northern galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1844-1848, 1846-12-22
Volume XII.
MISCELLANEOUS.
FRoM THE KxIcKERBockER MAGAZINE.

allow MANY, MANY a man has had bitter
cause to regret, within the last ten years, TO
weep and mourn with bitter unavailing an
guish. that, when he was happy and comfort
! able in his quiet, humble home, when no Of
| ficer of the law ever approached his door,
when his wife aud children wanted neither
for food nor clothing, and his house was filled
with the light and sunshine of domestic peace,
he did not remain content with his lot The
broken merchant, the ruined speculator, the
bankrupt politician, the brefess, starving
lawyer, the clerks in great cities, out of en-
ployment, may, in almost every case, trace
all their nislortunes to the spirit Of discop-
teEi. How many young men, every year
leaving employments in village or county,
which yielded them an honorable aud com
Gertable support, plunge into our great cities,
those huge charnel-houses, fondly hoping for
high salaries and constant employment! And
how many of the number, finding every ocCu-
patton already over-crowded, sink gradually
lower and lower. and wear away their hope
less lives in base and detestabe emplryments !
And above all, what supreme folly and in
| iufatuaton. nay almost crime, IS il for one
who has a wife and children dependent upon
him, living perhaps in some small retired vii
Iage, where every one knows and respects
him, canning by honest work, enough TO main
tain his family and rear his little ones in com
fort, and supply all their moderate wants, TO
tear himself up by the roots from the soil in
hich he flourishes so well, and upon mere
notion that his talents as lawyer, or capaci-
ty as a man Of business. will inlallibly give
him employment, wealth, fame, in some great
cry 10 emigrate thither, perhaps leaving be-
hind him the graves Of some who have been
born 10 him, and made his old home dear to
him because they have died in il; carrying
with him his wife and children TO partake OF
his new fortunes; and so he plunges into the
vortex. a thousand men, his rivals in pur-
suir Of the same object josted him at every
turn. He finds thar the talents and capacity
which were valuable and noteworthy in the
village, are unnotioed, unknown or disre
gardcd in The city. His little means, saved
from his former earnings. gradually disappear:
although, 10 make them hold out as long as
possible, his wife has ,tinted herself in her
comforts. denied hereelf her Ordinary inno-
cent enjoyments, aud foregone the pleasure
of seeing her children adorned. as Of old,
with few harmless Injuries OF dress, which
once ministered TO her delight and pride, III
asmuch as Ileii sweet forms and faces, with
those itile adornmentS, seemed more beauii-
fort after another is selfdenied and even the
step of gaunt Hunger is heard approaching
his heavy hand knorks harshly at their door.
Alas how much misery and crime have thus
been created-how many buds thus been
crushed, that would in the old soil have
bloomed into beautiful flowers
How many lawyers. eniiced TO cities by
the batteries of their friends and the still
more cogent whisperings Of their vanity; en-
titled many of them, if talent and learning
would alone command success, TO expect it as
their due; lead miserable and disreputable
| livesl East, west. north and south il is The
same. Hundreds swarm in every city. Out
of the number, how large, how very large d
proportion do not earn wherewith 10 buy their
bread! Twenty fail where one succeeds.
And if these young men had been content, il
they had been bred farmers, engineers, me-
chdnics, how much nohler specimens oil man
hood. how much happier human creatures
We uld they have been An end must come
10 this some day; for ere long it will be, il ii
is not now the case, that he who destines his
son TO profession. will almost certainly des-
tine him 10 poverty and ruin.
For me. thank God | am content. So
long as can keep my humble home, and
fire in my CRATE in winter; so long as my wife
is not compelled 10 deny herself such COM
forts as moderate heart desired; nay, so
long as my children do not come round me
when am weary and sad, with their little,
thin, pale faces, begging pitifully for bread
which | am not able 10 furnish them, am
content. What though | often tire with
long labor? Those that love are warmly
clad and plentifully fed; and while this great
wide earth is so filled and swellering with
misery and hunger, SO that one in twenty Of
its vast population has not from day TO day
enough 10 eat; while men and women in
great cities freeze with cold, while they die
Of starvation; while woe-worn women. with
children in their arms sit on the stone steps
OF the Astor House. and beg for coppers
wherewth 10 buy dry bread; while girls are
driven by hunger 10 prostitution and boys TO
theft: let those in our Great West, who know
not what cold or hunger means; who can
feed and clothe those who depend upon them
and rear them up to become honest men and
'virtuOus women; let them ] say, in Gods
name be content. He must be poor indeed,
who finding constant work 10 do, and having
hands to do it with, cannot perfectly content
himself with the reflection rha: there are
countless multitudes as deserving as he. with
the same right to be happy as he has, 20
whom his lot would be a Paradise