Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-03-12

! in q gorgeous parlor, surrounded by splendid
mirrors, playing on her piano, and courted by
rich suitors, and fattered by poets love-
| The world may not know it, but the western
physician does, that among the snrging tide
of wealth and home-huuting life that swells a
cross the great lakes, and spreads across the
! prairies of the West, even to the shores OF the
| Pacific, there are q smaller number of emf
grants that swarm out from the houses OF the
merchant princes of our great commercial me-
tropols. The place is too strait for them, and
luxury, vice, and Incidence have enervated
them too much to enable them to buffet the
rude breakers of city life. These sons. from
the euchre tables, the drinking saloons, and
club-houses OF that refined and Christian city,
are married to the highest bidder who has cash
to give with his daughters and the young pair
is shipped west with bales of goods and boxes
Of merchandise, to become aristocracy of the
villages and cities of the West. While the
and women from the commercial capital, the
hardy sons of toll and exertion flow back from
the farm and places Of toll, to fill the places of
clerks in the great city's trading houses, and
become the future merchants of the vast
Babel Of trade.
Among these adventurers, in the year '34,
was young merchant OF much promise who
ranked much higher than the average of this
class of men. He had become the husband of
the accomplished Miss E The doting
parents had dismissed them with their blessing
and stock of goods, and they had taken up
their residence in ihe village of r, where
year or more of prosperity had placed them
at the head of the village aristocracy.
But fortune has her changes, and rolls her
mad waves over the hopeful and the stout
hearted. One of these tempests of fire, that
just God rains on cities, as he did on Sodom
for her sins, came upon New-York; and on q
cold night in December, the red tongue of the
fre-tempest Tapped up the heart OF the city,
and scattered her proud merchants as beggars
in the streets.
The man Of millions, in single night, found
himself without means of 4 breakfast; the fam
lily that dweit in palace, were houseless i!
daily bread, were rich as the richest
/ shall never forget the strange scene that |
was presented at capital, for the whole !
State suffered; so widespread was the desola- /
ton, that none could measure it !; but every I
heart was touched with pity for the homeless |
and the breadless.
The nightwas intensely cold; the water froze
in the hydrants, and the deyouring element
rioted unrebuked on the labors and the hopes
OF men. The sun in the east on a seafof
smouidering ruins; all night had mothers
and wept. and when daylight came,
fathers Of stony hearts, that never prayed be-
fore, prayed then:
"Give us this day-our daily bread -
So wide was the desolation that no one could
see its shore, and thinking men rushed up to
the capital, to ask the loan Of a million of dol
lars, to blunt for little time the sea of suffer-
ing that none cosld really fathom. l saw the
whole struggle, and heard the prayers of the
sufferers, and the proud bufctinSs Of those
who held the purse-strings. II
Men impored for the love of God. and the
ears Of suffering and helpless women and chill
iren, that aid which the State alone could j
give. They repeated the golden rule, and
ycpt hot tears Of suffering, for the fire had !
painted with red flame red spot for once
n the heart of the golden princes. They
Knew that men could suffer; they had seen I
heir own wives and daughters clinging to g
hem in despair, covered with silk, and spark {
ing with bright jewels, and asking where they l
hould sleep and eat. And the dry -souled Y
now spoke with Z tongue of fire. a
nd repeated those golden words, s.Do unto
thers S you would that others should do un L
0 you," and wept for aid; but those words /
ounded as strangely as the song of seraph t
hanted in the halls of Bedlam, 'sNow," said b
L. 4
'ewYo She has refused us all succor at '
be West, she has no heart when the flame l,
as died from her ruins, a heart of ice will a. /,
ain beat in her bosom. By the grace of God W
how her no mercy FOR she deserves none.- f.
i've her the silver ruls-she repeats the gold e
. one, but will never live by it," :
Such was actually the language that fell
ON the lips of Christian men, stung by the y
emon of golden selfshness. Said one, 81 is
i'll vote to relieve this cry for mercy. but tho al
ords stick in my throat-so much selfishness Il
eserves no pity" The boon was granted, and az
he tried and suffering city drew one long fir
'eath of love and gratitude to the bounty OF lie
le State. Reader, must now return to the Ii.
sdside of our sick patient, prepared TO un- be
srStand who she was and the causes of her IN
'nditon. She was the daughter of a wealthy ha
erchant, who lost his last dollar in the hugo th
e of '35; he saw the labors Of a long life cl
'ept from him in an hour, and the hope of his
miIy went down in that whirlpool of fire. dc
His son-in-law had few thousands in his ur
sstern home, but an memorable necessity he