The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1852-10-16

\ PATCH On Born kNEEs.--The following is
one of the cleverest essays we have met with
for many day. Similar in style, it is not infe-
rior to Franklin's best
when l was boy, it was my fortune to
breathe, for long time, what some writer's
term the bracing air of poverty. My mother
light lie the turf upon the form which once en-
closed her sweet and gentle spirit-was what
is called an ambitious woman; for that quality
which orerturns thrones and supplants dynas-
ties finds legitimate sphere in the humblest
abode that the shadow of poverty ever darken-
ed The struggle between the wish to keep up
appearances and the pinching grippe of necessity,
produce endless shifts and contrivances, at
which we are told some would smile, and some
to whom they would teach their own experience
would sigh. But let me not disturb the veil of
oblivion which shrouds from profane eyes the
hallowcd mysterious of poverty.
"On one occasion it was necessary to send me
on an errand to a neighbor in better circumstan-
ccs than ourselves and. therefore, it was neces-
sary that | should be presented in the best pos
sble aspect. Great pains were taken to give
smart appearance to my hatched and dilapi-
dated wardrobe, and to conceal the rents and
chasms which the envious tooth of time had
made in them; and by way of throwing over my
equipment certain SAVIOR and sprinkling of
gentility. my red and toil-hardened hands were
enclosed in the unfamiliar casing of a pair of
gloves, which belonged to my mother in days
when her years were fewer and her heart was
lighter.
II sailed forth on my errand, and on my
way encountered a much older and bigger boy
who evidently belonged to a family which had
all our own dragging poverty, and none of our
uprising wealth Of spirit. His rags fairly iut-
tered in the breeze; his hat was constructed
upon the most approved principles of ventila-
lin, nd chn f,o,, h.,
ty, might have been deemed pair of fossil
shoes-the very ones with which Shem shuffled
in the ark. He was an impudent varlet, with
daredevil swagger in his gait, and an Pm as
good as you leer in his eye--the very whelp to
throw dirt on well dressed horscman because
he was well dressed-to tear boys ruffles be-
cause he was clean. AS soon as he saw me, his
eye detected the practical inconsistencies which
characterized my costume, and, taking me by
the shoulder, turning me around with no gentle
hand, and surveying me from head to foot, eX-
claiming with scornful laugh of derision, "a
patch on both knees ,oilh glopes on!t'
II still recall the sting of wounded feeling
which shot through me at these wotds To par
ody celebrated line of the immortal Tuscan
THAT day wore my gloves no more.'
But the lessson SO rudely enforced, sank deep
into my mind and, in after life, have frequent
occasion to make practical application of the
words of my ragged friend, when have OBJ
served the ridiclous Inconsistencies which so Of
ten mark the conduct of mankind.
"When for instance, see parents carefully
providing for the ornamental education of their
children dancing and drawing, but giving no
thought to that moral and religious training
from which the true dignity and permanent hap
piness of life can come, never teaching them
habits of selfdiscipline and control, but rather,
by example, instructing them in evil speaking,
in uncharitableness, in envy and in falsehood,
think, with sigh, of patch on both knees
and gloves on.
"When | see family in cold, selfish solitude.
not habitually warming their houses with glow
of happy faces, but lavishing that which could
profusion of single night, think of the patch
on both knees and gloves on.
"When | see house profusely furnished with
sumptuous furniture, rich curtains and luxuri-
GUS carpets but with no books, or none but
few towdry annuals am reminded of the patch
on both knees and gloves on.
"When see our public men cultivating ex-
clusively those qualities which win way to
office. and neglecting those which will qualify
them to fill honorably the posts to which they
aspire, l recall the patch on both knees and
gloves on.
"When l see men sacrificing peace of mind
and health of body to the insane pursuit of
wealth, living in ignorance of the character of
children who are growing up around them, put
ting themselves from the highest and purest
pleasures of their natures and so perverting
their humanity, that which was sought as a
means insensibly comes to be followed as an end,
say to myself, "a patch on both knees and
gloves on"
"When see thousands spent in selfshness
and ostentation, and nothing bestowed for char
ity when see fine ladies bestained and be-
jeweled, cheapening the tolls of dressmakers,