The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1850-02-09
From the Boston Olive Branch
Self. Reliance of the Poor.

"What can you do for living?"
asked group OF children, not one of
whom had reached the age of eight. In
SANITY dozen little hands were raised
and as many eager voices were replying,
81 can get shavings and sell them !"
81 can shovel snow from the side
walks :"
81 can run of errands for people,"
Il can sweep Mr.. LIS store every morn
ing"
81 carry in the wood my father saws !"
with variety of like EXPLANATIONS, each
revealing some mode OF juvenile labor.
One tone was plainly pcrccptable in
these replies, tone of self-contidence,
not boasliuI, but triumphant, with the
power 10 be useful. Yet while these chill
drrn were thus revealing their home, life
and occupation, there wers others who
stood With them, silent, and evidently be-
wildered with new thoughts.
1t was recess-tlme IN public school,
and in this group was the usual mingIng
Of every condition of life. To the children
of poverty, the idea of working for sub
sistence was as a household friend the
petted children OF luxury knew not what
was meant. They knew that some people
worked, that mammals help" worked in
the kitchen, and perhaps some that papa's
clerks worked in the store; the girls
knew that their dress maker and miIliner
worked sometimes very lateto finish their
dresses, when their parents took them to
the theatre or to a fancy ball but the idea
OF working themselves and that too, as a
means of support, had never entered the
minds of the little darlings'
l looked on these young beings, 50 close
ly associated, yet so strangely contrasted,
and Tor perhaps the thousandth tune, the
thought arose, "Thank Cod, am a poor
mans child" 1t was followed by less
selfish thanksgiving, that in our public
schools at least, "the rich and the poor
meet together" We will not pause now
to consider the many advantages to each
resulting from this management, for we
wish now to speak of the self-reliancc
which is so peculiar characteristic of
The poor. We do not mean those who are
down by the burden Of abjcct want, whose
hovel-homes are darkened by ignorance,
and too often by vice we mean the honest
aboring poor, who drink gladly at the
fountains OF knowledge opened to them in
our public institutions, and perform chez +
fully the tasks that give them true indie
pendence.
Some may think we ought to say the
american poor, but this distinction is fast
passing away; as the crowd of want-crush-
ed and ignorant foreigners who form so
imperfect representation Of their own
lands become pupils in the great public
school-our own. We fear not that they
will ever injure us. The evil is ever
transient, but the good endureth. The
stream of foreign want and ignorance may
roll darkly in upon us; other lands may
mingle with the pure streams Of ours, the
very waste and filth OF their own but the
turbd tide shall turn our mill-wheels, and
bear our steamboats, even now, and ere
long the waters which had grown stag
nant from stiffness, and dark from dark
ness around them, shall become purified in
their onward course, and flash brightly
back the sunlight which is over them.
We speak oiself reliance in the poor,
because it is TO them the strength of their
existence. 1t is the power which sus-
tains them in their weary toll; which
teaches them what marvels may be
wrought by the strong right hand and
the stronger soul, who nerv-d by human
love aud heavenly trust. 1t is manly in
tine nan, il is womanly in the woman
1t is fitting TO the nobly bern, but in thu
poor it is nobility itself.