The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1856-07-26

The IL Can'ts'-are numerous and ubi.
quitous Their numbers are astonishing
A curious statistician estimates that abou;
one-h half of the children born into the world,
are furnished by Nature with a remarkable
lingual facility for the utterance Of this brief
and cowardiy sentence. Neither time or eX-
pcrience enables them to abolish from their
vocabulary these fatal words, and from the
cradle to the grave, they drag a slip-shod
life spent in accomplishing nothing, from the
fact that they lack the enorgy and will neces-
sary to accomplish.
These human drags are recognza le any,
where under any circumstances and in what
ever garb. In the palace, but more often in
the prison, especially in such enlightened
States as ours, where prisons serve as well
come refuge to many Of them, who are too
utterly worthless to get their own living.
and therefore force their creditors to get it
for them. And with this exception, we can
see nc other humane purpose in debtors
prison. Or the regal and duca can'ts,"
history furnishes too many examples to need
illustration at our hands OF tit.cd members
of the order, of lower degree, the world is
cursed with less number than formerly,
for the reason that the race is dying Of mere
inanity; but in the great world, among the
masses. it is astonishing what host OF drones
share the honey Of the bees gathering. Re
garding everything they DO as a hardship,
looking upon labor as an evil, il seems to be
a sort of moral duty with such men to do as
little as possible, and get all they can for it.
~ can't" is their shibboleth and shield
Propose to them the accomplishment of what
ever new work, anything out of the beaten
track, any little addition to what they here
done, and see! how, like trained jack DAVIS
their beaks fly open-without 4 moments
consideration of the possibility or des;rabili-
ty Of the doing and, out it comes Ike the
pretty Polly" Of a pet parrot" ! can't.
We have said-you may know them eve
rywhere, in the Legislative halls. on the battle
field, in the council-chamber. at the bar, in
the counting house, in the studio, at the
bench, or in the 'urrow, for they are spawn
cd everywhere; and among all classes Of
lndustrialS- merchants or mechanics, you
may know 81 can't'-as we'll by what he
does, IS by what he will not try TO do; and
a miserable -mumbing- mealy-mouthed-
mounta an-rais ne, and molc-hll moving mum
my OF a man, VIII you find him in any Of
these pursuits. lie IS always for delay.
I" He hasn't time, or he hasn't tools hc lacks
means; or he must have more help" you
lad better wait" or be knows at is i'm
.CSSiL4cj any tl!!5 ls-i.4ti s..a'! ~ - "a
try never comes into his head, IS It did
into Capt. Brasg's; to try being just what
he wishes TO escape from; while to say Il
can't, is the easiest, "a well as the IDeaneSt
method Of accomplishing his desires.
"I can't" is huunbug ard nuisance,
and society ought to make lin sensible of
the fact, by kicking him without its pa,e.
All things are possible-to God, and OF the
countless things possible to man. through
the right use of the gifts He has bestowed
upon him, not one in a hundred have yet
been accomplished Inyr!ads 0! failures re-
guting from the soulCss efforts and com
bnated blunderings Of the inanimate host of
- | can';s." i bog, Of sound body and mind
ought to be punished every time lie used the
phrase, by the adoption Ct which seiu:ary
corrective, the number Of the men who VII!
use it can materially be dminished.-
Cant" is the most contemplate cornbina-
.t:on Of letters known to the English scholar;
aad itlTsay be safely assansed that neither
Alfred, nor Arkwright: Milton, nor Maury;
Washington, Whitney; Girard, nor As
tor, nor any other among the glorious galaxy
of determinate industrial stars, ever yet re.
cognized the canting use 10 which the phrase
IS put by such as We describe. .-Nanfs .N9-
rails r0r -Herciqn.s