American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-05-13


The GLITTER THAT is NOT GoLD.-Scarcely
a week passes in which some valuable min
eral discovery in the United States is not pro
claimed through the public newspapers Gold
silver, copper, lead, iron and coal are de
veloped successfully; and while the proprie
tors of the lands upon which they are found are
greatly enriched, the public in general profit
also
In the discoveries Of the arts and sciences this
coincidence is often manifested in like manner
The revelation of the success OF an Individual
in any given pursuit suggests the subject 10 the
minds Of others, who forthwith follow ana I'M
prove upon what he has done, or exert their
efforts with equal good fortune in collateral
pursuits
The example of success is powerful incen-
tive; and the earth, like the broad field of sci
ence, will only yield its riches to the active
mind and the diligent hand.
But when the dangers, the privations and the
risks of the California gold-hunter are remem-
bered-when the success that must attend the
right direction of labor, capital and skill amid
the secure and accustomed homes and the whole.
some restraints Of our older communities are
borne in mind-we cannot but marvel mt the adj
venture of many of those whom we so often see
departing for the far off regions of gold.
The early settlers of the old colonies, who
formed the nuclei Of our present States, brought
with them their morality, their religion, their
laws, and the love of liberty that prompted
them to forsake the scenes and associations of
their early homes and, as the salt of the earth
they savored the communities that grew ND
around them. In California, as in other re-
Gently settled portions of our wide domain, may
be found many men whose lives, and character,
and principles have been well established, and
from whom may well be expected the happy
influences of good citizenship yet, this expec
tation is not generally realized. Disorder, dis
sipation, extravaganza, crime, and wretched-
ness are so general, that none are regarded as
safe who seek these fields of labor or specula-
ton
Whence is all this change? Why did the old
settlements of Puritans, of Friends, of Epsco-
pahans, Of Roman Catholics, and of the other
denominations, preserve unimpaired, amid the
new scenes around them, their staid and up.
right character-their respect for laws, boil
human and divine? We can answer. They
came not to tarry, but to dwell in the land they
had chosen. They came not to reap a golden
harvest in brief and dangerous season, but t.
make permanent and happy homes, and to plant
around their abodes the young trees that should
shelter them in old age. They came not to live
few brief years, amid social privation and its
many temptations but, with their wives and
children, to preserve purity and peace and viz
tue in their dwellings. With these they trans
planted to their new theatre all the happiness,
all the restraints, all the good, of the world
they had deserted, and left its pride, its luxu.
ries, its vanities its vices, behind them. They
came to subdue and replenish the EARTH not to
demoralize and devastate.
Is it so with the adventures of the present
day? They are bold, fearless, enterprising,
intelligent, and Industrious; and they go to
the field of their labors full of hope, and energy,
and wise determination; but not to make it
their home. They violate the laws of nature,
and place themselves beyond the wholesome
and necessary influences to which men should
ever be subject in life; and they pay the fear.
full penalty. Physical and moral disease pre-.
vail amid drunkenness, riot, violence and Lynch
law
Life is of brief and uncertain continuance,
and it's every hour should be at once nationally
enjoyed and proftably appropriated If there
be any whose lease is of definite duration
and who think it well to devote a certain por.
ton of life to the sole purpose of acquiring GOLD
for use in the later period, their case is very
singular; but even they may fail to receive o
full recompense for their sacrifices. Others,
we are sure, risk too much in devoting the GER
tain present to the pursuit we have described
for all the qualifications the greatest success
can bring in the uncertain future.
If California be rich, a fertile and desired
land, it will be peopled by communities who
viii 60 thither and enjoy it, and dwell in it for
al time. That it is such country, and that
patient industry may there find contented and
prosperous home, we entertain no doubt. But
the only safe and wise way Of going to it is to
unite in communicate take with us the
comforts the joys and the security without
which "there is no place like home" This re-
mark is true of all colonization. Men, in their
foolish parsimony, sometimes devise schemes at
variance with this view but, if our observation
has been correctly made, they have always con-
fessed their folly in the end.
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT or GEoRGETowS Col.
LEGE.-A fine and brilliant auditory attended