Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1850-06-24
Long Faced People.

We find the following remarks in Wills's S
Mirror. If they serve 10 shorten the length
of some lugubrious visage, or impart a
bright ard cheerful air to some sad and
sallow face, they will well fill the space
they occupy: a-e. ..s. .. ....-.
Why are the Americans (as q nalion)
so grave people? Walk the streets and
large majority Of the persons you meet
are solemn and sallow. They look, rs if
they had just risen from the persual Of
sBlair's Crave or the "Elegy." In vain
nature smiles upon them. They return
it not-their eyes court the ground-lheir
faces ale filled with untimely wrinkles
their gait is rapid and awkward: their fea-
lures gaunt and spectral; their voices hus.
ky and uncomfortable, and their conversa-
ton quite unembroiderd with wit or humor
Follow these people to their homes still
all is as murky-.hey bend frowningly
over the newspapers-they neither dance,
nor sing, or frolic-they drive all gai'y
from their wives or children, and make
their domestic life as dull and senseless as
one of Lillo's tragedies. Why is this? Is
life heavier burden, a more desperate
struggle here than elsewhere' Are we
cursed with dismal climate or sterl soil?
Have we no business to do, or is our labor
without reward? Gratitude (orb;ds that we
should say so. Nature has been most
bounteous to US; she has given us q land
full Of beauty and grandeur, as it is Of all
elements of wealth. Fairer skies never
canopied mortals. Our lakes are seas,
our rivers run their thousand leagues un-
wearied, our waterfalls sing their ceaseless
song in the forest; our mountains are
worthy Of the valleys they protect; the rain
bow hues of autumn are our peculiar boon;
the earth yields US a hundred fold we blush; ;
when we gather in the returns so dispro-
porlionate to our labors. Our ancestors,
too, have been most liberel to US. They
have given us good government and a
good name. We are also blessed with
minds naturally active and inventive, and
kept in perpetual play by the freedom of
our institutions. No other nation has such
mass of intellect in constant employment.
Why, then are we SO unhappy; thus
surrounded by all the materials of happi-
ness? Is not the simple truth thus, we
pervert our powers and abuse our privi-
leges; we place our affections upon the
wrong objecI-we pass by nature, art, love,
friendship, faith, and bow the knee to
mamon; We idoize it, we erect ccslv tenn
Piles to his honor, and on its alter we
sacrifice health, honor, our wives, and chill.
dren To be rich, or to be thought rich,
is, with too many Of US, the sole, exclusive,
oll-engrossing object Of our ves.-Thus
the heart contracts, the affections droop
and wilher; no tears water them, no smiles
warm them. Home becomes a dreary
place; it loses its sabbaths and its holidays
Its songs and its festivities, its hymns and
its prayers depart from it. Love and faith
flee affrighted from its threshold. sullen-
ness, frowns, taunts, reproaches, these are
its inmates. It's fresides become one con.
stant scene Of Jealousy, conspiracy, and
strife, till at last we almost long for death,
to break up and destroy place SO deprav-
ed and perverted. -...-...-
We will not dwell upon so gloomy n
picture, but simply ask is wealth worth
such q fearful sacrifice? What honest
heart can hesitate in its reply? =,.-..