Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1852-03-06
Easy Virtue, or Rich and Poor.

The author of new English book, called
Social Statistics, which is strongly democrat.
ic in its tone, speaks in this wise:
alt is very easy for you, Oh respectable
citizen, seated in your ensy chair, with your
feet on the ieuder, to hold forth on the mis-
conduct of the people; very easy for YOU TO
censure their eXtravagant aud vicious habits
very easy for you TO be pattern of fiugaIi.
~, of recttudc, Of sobriely. What else should
you do? Here you are surrounded hy com
forts, possessing multiplied sources of law
ihl happiness, with reputation to maintain,
an ambition to fulfil, aud the prospects of n
competency for your old age. A shame in
deed would it be it with these advantages
You were not well regulated in your bella
yl0r. You have cheerful home, are warm
ly and cleanly clad, aud fare, if not sumpt-
uonsly every day, at my rate abuuduntly.-
For your hours ofrelnXation there are amuse-
ments. A newspaper arrives regularly to
satisfy your tastes. If literary, books may be
had in plenty; and there is pano, if You
like music. You eau afford to cntertuin
your friends, and are entertained in return.
There are lectures aud concerts aud exhibi-
lions, accessible, if you incline TO them. You
may have holiday when you choose to take
one, and cnn spare money for an annual trip
10 the seaside.
"And enjoying all these privileges, you take
credit 10 yourself for being a well-cunducted
mnn! Small praise to you for il! If you do
not contract disspnted habits, where is the
merit? you have few incentives TO do so.-
1t is no honor TO you, that you do not spend
your Swings in sensual qualification; you
have pleasures enough without But what
would you do if placed in the position of the
laborer? How would these virtues of yours
stand the wear aud tear poverty? Where
would your prudence and self.dena he if
you were deprived of oil the hopes that now
stimulate you; il you had 10 better pros
poets Than that of the Dorsetshire farn-ser-
want, with his "a. week, or that of the per.
petually y'siraitened stocking weaver or that
OF mill-hnnd with his periodical suspcn-
sions of work? Let MS see you tied to an
irksome employment from dawn ill dusk !;
fed on meagre food and scarcely enough of
that; married TO factory girl, ignorant of
domestic management; deprived of the en-
Joyments which education opens up, with 10
place OF recreation but the pot house, and
then let us see whether you would bo rs
steady as you are. Suppose your savings
had 10 he made, not as now, out of surplus
income, but ono Of wagcs already insufficient
Tor necessaries; and then consider whether
to be Provident would be as easy as you at
present find il. Conceive yourself one of
desplsed class, contemporary termed the
great unwashed;' stigmaiized as british,
Slolih' vicious; suspected of harboring wick
ed deslgnss excluded from the dignity of cili-
zenship; aud then say whether The desire 10
he respectable would be as practically oper-
alive on you as now. Lastly, Imagine that
seeing your capacities were but ordinary.
your education next TO nothing, and your
competitors innurnerable, you despaire1 of
ever attaining to higher station, and then
think whether the incentives to perseverance,
and forethought would be as strong as your
existing ones. Realize these circumstances.
Oh comfortable citizen, and then answer
whether the reckless and dsorderly habits
Of the people are SO inexcusable."