The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1855-11-19
A Picture 81 our Country.

America, rs she now stands, is . strik ing
fact. The Western clearings, the immense
farms of the Mississippi Valley, the Lake
trade, the foreign emigration, toiling Africa
chained to the car Of commerce, gorgeous
and reckless New York, and sudden San
Francisco, excite imagination, by ali that
they imply and foreshadow. They repre-
sent many ideas, and embody many won
derful and moving story; for business has
its danger and daring, its suffering and en-
durance, and the changes OF fortune, in this
new world Of boundless resources and free
activity, are more marvellous than the tales
Of the Arabian Nights. This bold enterprise
that stretches to the Pacific, this skilled and
n homestead, to cultivate, and plant, and
adorn; this brave army OF worshipers,
marching On irresistibly to the conquest Of
nature, form . grand spectacle. Though
their weapons--the axe, the plough, and the
steam ensine-hAve not the lustre Of poetry
that gleams from the point of the sword |;
though the heroes of the farm, the work
shop, and counting house, like village Hsmp-
dens, die unsung, yet great qualities are Of
ten exhibited in these humble fields Of mans
effort, and their labors found nations. -
those Of the coral insect lift the basis OF an
island above the sea, TO the light and air Of
Heaven.
But the picture has its dark side. The
eager desire for wealth, the incessant and
Sabbathless" pursuit Of it has become the
universal passion and occupation. We have
the love of money which is the root Of all
evil and under the deadly shade of the tree
from that root, the love Of knowledge and
art, Of truth, and virtue, and beauty, with
ers and dies 6 In prosperity no affairs
smoke" The curse of Midas is upon u.s.
Our feelings, our ideas, our aspirations, are
ell turned into gold, and we are standing
amid our barren abundance. We worship
the material, not the spiritual the visible
and transient, not the invisible and eternal
We are practical, not intellectual; and our
pleasures are OF the senses, not Of the rea-
son, imagination, and taste. We are smitten
with ''the lust Of flesh, and the lust Of the
eye, and the pride of life.' We are true
disciples Of the ethics Of interest and utili-
ty, and our only morality is cash payment.
Truly has it been said, that 90 he that makes
haste to get rich shall not be innocent" Ii
incorporate drinking be the degrading vice
OF one portion Of our people, incorporate
money making Is tn e besetting sin Of another
and much larger portion, and it is difficult to
say which is the more pernicious. One 10 q
wv - sAS oVi'1CS1 ASo1 W uS tnc Auiuu tu6
other delusion Of the mind, and a selfish
passion, blasting the moral sentiments, and
palsying the higher powers Of the intellect.
The poor drunkard cannot resist the baneful
cup, which benumbs the soul, .'unmouldine
reasons mintage," and Transforming him
$ Into the inyiorious likeness Of . beast
and the infatuated worshiper of Mammon
deliberately uses his mental faculties for his
own destruction, prefers the ignoble and low
80 the pure and high, and shuts out the light
Of Heaven from his life. Successful indus
try, rapid gains, rank, prosperity, without
counteracting cause to modify their influence,
have stimulated this passion for wealth to
excess, and have produced already, in this
new country, luxury, venality, corruption,
contempt for intellectual pursuits and pleas
ures, and sneering indifference to ennobling
and elevated sentiment. Hence the vulgar
lostentation of our cities hence the general
want Of literary taste and culture hence
the deplorable frauds Of business; hence
much Of the baseness Of our politics.--[N.
American Review