Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1853-10-19
From tie Homie Journal.
The Professions.

There are only few; for accident, not choice,d
termines the career Of most of'us. But here ant
there, there is youth who, owing to the circum
stances of his parents or the strength OF his OWL
determination, is able to make up his mind wha
he will do in life ; and does it. ::
i In former times, young men OF this fortunate
class embraced, as matter Of course, the profes
sion of arms and in some of the less progressive
countries of Continental Europe. the majority o
"well- born" youth do SO to this day. The glris
Iof Copenhagen still prefer that the arms OF soi
der should encrcle them, when they waltz, and
the highest honours ofthe court and cabinet are
still worn with the epaulette. In those countries
not to be soldier, is, not to belong to the etHe o.
society. Happily, our own army is so small, thai
arms, as profession for educated gentlemen, car
scarcely be said 10 exist among US. Millions o
our citizens live and die without ever seeing a
man entitled tn paint on his trunk the letters Y
S.A.
In this republic, the Raw has been, till within
few years the avorite profession Of the fortunate
few. The Law was the beaten path to the high
est honours. Every President but two has been
chosen from the legal profession, and would not
have been chosen. if he had not been of that pro-
fesson. Every Vice President whose name we
can now call to mind was lawyer. Every man
in our time who has been prominent. but unsuc-
cessfuI candidate for those offices, was lawyer.
Every Secretary of State we believe, has been
LAWYER Almost every Governor ofa State has been
lawyer Nearly every man that has been dis
tinguished in Congress was lawyer. The lead
ing persons in counties, towns ard villages, nave
generally been lawyers and down even to the
present time, the profession retains something OF
its former prestige. 1t is only in the tlast few
years, that great merchants, great manufacturers,
great writers, great engineers, great railroad men,
great agricuturists, great architects, have begun
to overtop and overshadow the wealth and conse-
quence Of great lawyers. Lawyers know better
than we do, that the best days of the legal profcs
sion are over, and over forever. Simplifed codes
reduce fees. Improved manners and increasing
enlightenment diminish litigation. The more
men know, the better friends they are and the
better friends men are, the more likely they are
to be able to settle their disputes without the as
sistance OF acourt Moreover, the great honours
of the State, once so much coyeted-once so au-
gust and overwhelming how of far less ac-
count because the whole country understands
that those high honors cannot, except by accident,
fall upon the deserving but are merely the stock
in trade of small, disreputabIe class of men, who
have made business of politics, and whose jar
gon in the newspapers is even uninteligible to the
public. Emphatically, the palmy days of the law
are over. 4
We believe, there is no odiminution in the nhm-
Der of candidates for such legal honours as are left
but in the quality of those candidates, there is
palpable depreciation. We cannot speak for 9TH
er places but in New York the elite of the young
men do not, as general thing, become students
of law. When they do. it is because an uncle,o
father, or an intimate FRIEND is the possessor of
business in which there is an opening and a
prospect. In fact, to create legal business IN
New York, is understood to be just one degree
within an impossibiliy. In the country, it is less
difficult; but to an honourable man, sometimes
quite impossible. For example, thefe is town
about hundred miles from New York, in which
reside four young lawyers, whose united practice
"a year ago) would have kept COW in tolerable
pasture They were not the men to sit at their
desks and patiently starve. On the contrary, they
had no sooner got license to practice, and their
tin plates painted, than they set abo1t making
stir in the country, "to get" as one OF them hap.
PLY termed it, ''their names up" embraced
the Temperance cause" and spoke at meetings.
plunged into Odd Fellowship, and passed his
leisure moments in visiting lodges and advoca-
ting the interests of the Odd-Fellows generally
went into extremities of politics, and got his
name in the papers. d devoted himself to the
church, and advanced so far on the road to prefer
ment as to be allowed TO hand round the plate
These expedients, we are informed have not been
employed in vain; and this fact alone-the fact
that such expedients could be successful-is al
most enough of itself to put stamp of infamy on
the profession. We do not think it is going too
far to say, that the law is among the last profess
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man of honour, spirit and talent. Among the ell
der members of the legal profession, there are men
of the first responsibility, of eminent talent and
great worth; but it is not the profession for a
yYs5sg Ys5sgs ma" 70 CHOOSE III TIC year u ''' l'''
1t is talking profession; and what is wanted
in these days is action, and the power Of directing
action. We want architects who, to use the Ian
guage of Mr.. Greenough, can apply Greek princi
Plies, without initiating Greek forms. This ma
on, in the course of the next fifty years, is to be
torn down and built up better. Of the two hun
dred and fifty churches standing this day in New
York, not twenty will exist in the year 1900; but
will have been replaced by better ones, if archi-
ta. t, can be found to build them. When we eon:
slider, on the other hand, the rapidity with which
property is accumulated here, and on the Other
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cence, we cannot resist the conclusion, that the
United States is about to furnish the largest and
best field for the practice of the architectural pro-
ession, that has ever been afforded at any period
in any country. But those who practice that pro
ready, snd copies we have already. We want
enslaeed by it men who will seize the great idea
that Beauty Is utility perfected, and make it live
in structures that shall answer their purpose Il
admiration, yet gladden. the eye and exalt the
taste of those who beheld them. There is grea
deal OF glory in reserve for the men who shall a
dapt the art of architecture to the wants, the eli
mate, the genius of America-and notgl0ry "a
lone.
We want engineers, too Within the next fif
ty years, thousand tunnels will have to be exca
waited, ten thousand bridges will be built, mil
lion miles of railroad must be laid out, the who'll
Rocky Mountain region is to be made accessible
and things are tO be done which we can no mcr
anticipate now, than the people of the year 1901
could have anticipated railroads, telegraphs ant
steamships What field for men Of scienc
and talents! The American mind is singularl,
adapted to enterprises of this kind and tits witi
the utmost confidence, that we urge young mel
who can choose what they will do, and who hav
no fancy for an ordinary hum drum career, TO Civ
the profession Of ofengneering serious consideration
1t is profession for MAN! 1t takes him ont-ot
doors, up mountains. along torrents, across prai
ries, through forests. He becomes Intimate wit
nature. while he uses the forces of nature to sub
due nature : and there is something so honestly
palpably and greatly beneficial in what he does
that the narrowest of utilitarians cannot refds
him his respect. Look at Colonel Serrell, VIII
bridged the Niagara before he was twenty-five
years old, and did the same service for the st
Johns, on his wedding trip. There is something
better in that than supplying the mind over "mo
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