Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-10-03
THE POOR PROFESSIONAL MAN

delight upon the honest man struggling
with misfortune and this, because the
gods know how difficult it is for men to
preserve their honesty, under the constant
temptations and attacks of troubles and
embarrassmcnts. 1t is very easy for well
fed and well clothed virtue to look with
disdain upon the vices of the poor, when
they, themselves, are free from the temp
tatlons of want and misery: but let them
change places, give their rampant virtue
the severe test which the poor mans has
to undergo, and We venture to say they
would come from the trail no better men
than those whom they now so thought
lessly, if not cruelty, condemn.
The man whose fortune has never lift
ed him above the level of the bare necess-
tiles of life does not feel his condition
with that sensibility which the man
experiences, who, to use common phrase,
g has seen better days" and our Sympa-
thies are very often misplaced, in lament
ing their apparently unhappy lot, whilst
another class, who really need the conso-
lations of friendship and the helping
hand, but too rarely enjoy the one or the
other we mean the poor professional man.
The onset of a professional career, un-
less sustained by means, independent of
pursuit, is always arduouS and discour-
aging. Unlike the tradesman, or the
merchant, who displays in his shop win
dow the rich goods he may have in store,
and at once command public attention,
the professional man can only display the
richer treasures of his mind and expert
ence here and there, bit by bit, unless
some fortuitOuS circumstances should call
forth brilliant display of both He
cannot, like the merchant, either run
about to seek or ask for business, for the
world would have but little confidence in
the man who commended his own skill
and knowledge to their patronage. He
cannot, like the other, safely say his
goods are the best the market affords
No; he must sit in his office and await
the slow coming support of the public:
but what damned minutes tells he Ger
as he counts his slender means, and sees
not, as yet, in the prospective of the fu-
ture, one speck of hope. With the posi-
ton, education, and feelings of a gentle
man, he is compelled to maintain himself
the crushing cares which already depress
him. Very wrong, cries the merchant
always live within your means. Very
true, and very good practice when your
success does not depend so much upon
nice observanceS as i'm the case of pro-
fessional man. You may sell a bale or
cargo of cotton with torn coat on, or no
coat at all, or seedy suit, but it would
never do for the doctor or the lawyer, un-
less already well established in practice,
to appear at the bedside of a patient,
or in presence of the court, in similar
attire. People do not recognize talent in
thread-bare clothes Genius must not wear
a crownless hat or darned stocking, if it
hopes to gain admission to polite society.
FAT MEN.-Mr. Bruce, in his Classic
and Historic Portraits, speaks of the dan
gers of becoming too fat in Sparta:
"The ancient Spartans paid as much
attention to the rearing of men as the
cattle breeders in modern England do to
the breeding of cattle. They took charge
of the firlnness and looseness of mems
flesh, and regulated the degree of fatness
to which it was lawful in a free State for
any citizen to extend his body. Those
who dared to grow too fat or soft for the
military exercise or the service of Sparta,
were soundly whipped. In one particular
instance, that of Nauclis, the son of
Polybus, the offender was brought before
the Ephori, and meeting of the whole
people Of Sparta, at which his unlawful
fatness was publicly exposed, and he was
threatened with perpetual Punishment if
he did not bring his body within the
regular Spartan compass, and giveup his
culpable mode of living, which was de-
clared to be more worthy of an Ionian
| than of son of Lacedemon.'