The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1848-12-05
TOWN AND COUNTRY.

A young friend of ours, few years since
engaged in the counting room of one of our
largest mercantile establishments, down town,
but now thrifty farmer, out West, thus
writes US, from Kalamazoo, in the State of
Michigan
= "Would that you could through
your paper persuade more young men situated
as formerly was behind the counter in your
city, to take to the plough in the wide field
the West opens for them, and there with
small amount Of means enjoy an amount of
happiness and contentment which New York
clerk never knows and never can enjoy"
In this single paragraph young men of every
class may read a whole volume of advice
wholesome advice, true, rendered oftentimes
before, but nevertheless, coming in this in
stance from one whose actual experience
bears testimony to The advantages accruing
from strict observance thereof, it loses moth,
ing from repetition hero. We do indeed, wish
we could persuade many who are now toiling
and wasting away their moral, social, and phys
ical existence, in this great metropolis, behind
counters, and in dark rooms, porting over
ledgers, casting up account books, measuring
out the length Of their days with yard stick
to think better of their lot, and, while COM
planning of unremunerative salaries, to give a
glance at their biographies, and see there that
this great and glorious country is not cooped
up on the little island of Manhattan.
When we look alone upon the wide and fer
tile field that presents itself in the young and
thriving West, and see there mighty land
and powerful people springing into exist
ence as if by magic, and offering the most ad-
vantageous conditions to the cnterprising and
industrious, does it not seem the very extreme
of shiftless imbecilitY to hear the murmurings
of hard times poor salaries which frequent
" greet our ears from those whose misdirect-
ed ambition points to the pen and the coun-
ter, instead of the plough and the sickle. 1t
is, in truth, sad perversion of education TO
devote it entirely to what are commonly
known as the professional pursuits,-and if
false pride, on the score of an imaginary
'gentility,' as is too often the case, persuade
parents to bring up their sons with ideas alb
horrent of an agricultural life,-hard work
and poor pay, the legitimate fruits of metropol-
itan competition, will, in after life, surely be
the portion of those whom they designed to
put forward in life. Why is it that, for in
stance, our dry goods clerks are so badly paid
Why do those who stand at the desks, from
daylight to dark, complain of beggarly salaries,
which barely afford a decent subsistence
Why are our intelligence offices besieged with
applicants for situations, and the columns Of
every newspaper in the city crowded with
wants. Simply, because the labor market,
governed as all other markets are, by demand
and supply, is overstocked-'glutted' land
without any prospect of correspondingly in
creasing demand, prices, or wages, cannot be
otherwise than depressed.
These facts being too palpa5ly evident for
denial, the next question naturally propounds
a remedy, if the grievance, indeed, does not of
itselfat once suggest the only one that can be
benefcially applied. If they who are now. justly
enough, complaining of their hardship, behind
the counter, in all large cities, but particular
ly here, in New York, will but divest their
Imagination Of the ridiculous idea that it is not
so respectable or 'genteeP in this plain, re-
publican country Of ours, to dig potatoes or
hoe corn, as to make out bill of lading, or TO
expostulate with a beating down customer
upon the cheapness of yard Of broadcloth.
we think they will have surmounted half the
difficulties which lie between them and COM
Portable competency-in the country. Leave
this overgrown metropolis with what small
means you have now in your possession and
90 into the interior. 1t does not require but
few dollars to set you down IN the rich prai-
RE lands of the West, which, once there, you
will find to be something more than the fright
full wilderness it is represented here A few
dollars we saw; that we know most OF you can
command-but you WHO have IT not, reserve
the dollar usually devoted to the opera, or the
fifty cents you pay for the concert, or the
theatre, and in a short time the funds necessa-
ry to put you in state of transition, Will be
made I'D. To be good farmer, it is not abso-
lutely necessary that you should have served
an apprenticeship TO the business, but an IN
domtable industry, and moderate know
edge Of agriculture, and more than all, res
olute determination to 'go-ahead, are indis-
pensably requisite to success Depend upon
It. the delicacies and the Injuries, as well as
the more substantial comforts Of life, are as a.
bundant in the country as IN the city. Su-
peradded to all, it should not be forgotten that
there the beauty and grandeur of Nature COM
bine to elevate the moral man within, deve.ope
more fully and freely than in the pent-up city,
the mental faculties, and quicken the more
generous impulses OF our nature. Life in the
city is artificial-all outside show, so to speak.
In the country, it is what its exterior purports
to be, in general sense, contentment and
happiness. Men crowded In thousands and
thousands together, are always necessarily in
volved in petty everyday rivalry ard comPe-
tition. which impercepibly, but eventually blunt
the finer feelings, and impart finally distaste
even for existence itself. An agricultural popu
lation, however,is to great extent exempt from
all these evils-know comparatively nothing
Of the miseries flowing from an over-populated
city, but with all the comforts of life at their
command, they 90 on working at their destiny
and run their course as happily and peaceful
" as it is possible for man 10 do, in this mum
dane sphere.-N. T. Express.
RoNGE THE REFoRMER.-The Vienna
of London paper seys -
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