The Opelousas patriot. [volume] (Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La.) 1855-1863, 1855-03-17
COMMUNICATIONS.
soLp. THE CURSE OF THE AGE.

GOLD. THE CURSE OF H AGE.
If thou wilt needs damn tbyself, do it in a more
delicate way than drowning: Make all the money
thou canst.' shakespeare.
Editors Of the Opeiousas Patriot:
The truth of the principle contained in the above
words has been practically illustrated many times in
the past few months.
Since the g magnificent fraud" perpetrated by
Schuyler, there has been a mania for swindling,
affecting the whole business community. From the
bankers clerks to presidents of railroad monopolies.
every one who has had the opportunity to lay his
fingers upon money has seemed to study how he
could best appropriate the largest possible amount
to private use, and longest escape detection.
The expose, which is sure to come at last, brings
no compunctions of conscience no upbraidings Of the
" still small voice. that whispered in the etr of
childhood, Thou shalt not steal !" but, on the con
trary, the bank teller who has embezzled twenty-five
thousand dollars unblushingly asserts that his only
regret is that the amount is not twice as much. The
sacrifice of character weighs not a feather with the
greedy gold-seeker for ut the very outset Of bust.
ness life, the maxim. Make all the money thou
canst, " by fair means and foul, has been his faithfully
observed motto. The cultivation of the mind. of the
social virtues, of the moral sentiments, is nothing TO
the man who makes haste to be rich. He sllrrenders
without Il sigh,
Ease, peace,
Truth, faith, good conscience, friends,
Love, charity, benevolencc, and all
The sweet and tender sympathies of life,
and gathers a full harvest of unrest day by day, and
at last sells his soul for d heap of trash which profit
eth him not, and has made his whole nature q pauper
in every thing that digniies and ennobIes d being
whom God had fashioned in his own image.
This ayaricions spirit is the curse of the ago. 1t
is establishing false standards of life, sapping the
yitals of society, weakening the bonds of natural
affection, making shipwreck of minds born to a
higher destiny than the sordid love of wealth for its
own miserable sake, touching with its shriveling
finger hearts that else would beat with generous
impulses and rejoice in noble deeds. If these ure
faets-(and who will dare deny their validity D.
have they not a fearful significance for MS,
Where will this soul-1estroying thirst for cnld-a
thirst a Thousand times more ~debasing and democrat
lzing than that for the Intoxicating bowl-stop?
There are young men, gifted with the highest attri.
butes OF humanity, now lying in our iails and peui.
tentiafies, branded with intamy, ~ontcasts from the
society of the honest, who have been brought to ruin
by this curse. There arc others, scarcely less guilty,
whose care-worn coantenances and uneasy air seem
to say, " Tomorrow the world may despise me as |
loathe myself There are those who, in the fee Of
accusations which they can not refute if they would
bear themselves stoically in their daily intercourse
with their fellows, who look snreringly at those who
are honestly earning their bread by the sweat of
their face, and, strange to say, these living Iibels
upon the whole race Of honorable men are treated
de'erentialy by Thousands who sl.ouid scorrl the
baseness, the ~treachery and the duplicity by which
they have obtained and still clutch the gold which
rlgbtfully belongs to others. What a sad comment
upon the age we live in! VIII the world become
wiser by the wlctched experience Of dcfaultinp
tellers, embezzllng clerks, fraudulent ba.kcrs, bro.
ken-dowH merchants, bankrupt railroad companies.
anu piiler!ng gentry great and small? The men
who have spent the prime of life in the INSCRIPTIONS
employment of every energy for the sole purpose of
amassing wealth, and have grown gray i'll the belief
that, so long az they can avert the strong arm o, the
Law, they are perfectly justilable in their money,
making y can hardly he persuaded to N a
lie OF strict honesty but can not our young men lie
made to feel that there is nobler Ain than a passion
for gold that there is a higher sphere of action
Tor which they ought to prepare? orgLousAs.
Rayci Retreat, March, 1865.