Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-04-09
OUR SOCIAL CONDITION.

OUR SOCIAL CONDITION.
The intense vitality of New York, aris
ing from its position on the seaboard, and the
mixed character of its constantly increasing
population, displays itself not only in the
reckless energy which distinguishes its bust
ness operations, but also in its social charac'
teristics. The wise man and the fool the
honest man and the knave; the merchant
and the speculator; the dandy and the SLOW.
en-; labor, sloth, crime, licentiousness, reli.
gion and infdelity; are all jumbled together
in that seethipg cauldron of human life, and
each, in its turn, bubbles up to the surface,
and sometimes becomes means of pointing
a moral, and sometimes becomes the theme
of the romantic narrative. Life in New
York is ftful fever, with its temporary
calms and its prolonged struggles and writh,
ings; its sensible intervals, alternating with
dreamy or foolish wanderings, or passionate
outbursts. In that one city, more than in
any other on the face of the globe, the world
may be truly said to be epitomised. Repre-
seutatives of all nations, and all creeds, are
there to be found; and there also the basest
crimes, jostle the noblest virtues.
In such molly multitude as is congrega-
tod together on the Island of Manhattan,
these violent contrasts were to be expected,
and the consequence is, that an ever vary
ing succession of criminal mysteries and
social scandals afford, not only the people of
that city, but the whole Republic, with
topics for discussion or themes for dehorta-
tion.
For month or more, the journals were
filed with strange details connected with
the Burdell tragedy. The Coroner's in
quest, conducted in an unusual manner, and
laying bare, with daring and shameless
hand, the. privacies of life and character,
stimulated the morbid appetite to an extent
not excelled by the most licentious of French
romances, and encouraged the publication nt
rumors which gave additional spice to the
narrative by revelations damaging like to
the victim, to the parties accused of putting
him to death, and to minor persouagcs,
either Immediately or remotely connected
with this terrible drama.
But rcpletion came at length, and just as
the great public was beginning to weary Of
the horrible repast, the table is cleared Of
the fragments, and the appetite is again
tempted with the cakes and delicacies, the
wines and walnuts of little romance in
private life, the dramatic PERSONA of which
consist of wealty father, wilful young la.
dy, and an adventurous coachman. In an.
other column the last act of this tragic. come.
dy will be found recorded. We call it a
tragic. comedy with reason, for however the
masses may sympathise with the romantic
young lady and her successful suitor, there
can be no doubt that her parents must be
suffering intense anguish for what at leat
they regard as the loss of favorite child,
around whom their affections were twined,
and for whom they had probably anticipated
a brilliant future. Whatever others may do,
we, for our own part, sympathise with these
parents. The match may turn out i'll or
well; but the grosser nature of the man
leads naturally to the belief that the future
of a refined and sensitive woman, highly ed
ucated, and accustomed to every luxury her
fancy craved, cannot be so happy as in her
sentimental moments she has imagined it
will prove. Cast loose upon the world-he
to the exercise of his rough labor, she to
teach music and the languages-their path
through life must be one of sharp contrasts,
and hers especially of painful "reminiscences.
Love may do much to abate the pang-but
even love cannot compensate for the lack of
that intellectual accord which usually comes
into effectual play when passion subsidies and
reason rc.assumcs the mastery. Lear, in his
desolation, wildly declares
"Oh, sharper than serpents tooth it is
To have thanklcss child"
And many parent now lives on this con-
tinent who has realized the truth of this out
burst of agony on the part of the discrown-
ed king. Disobedience to parents is the
clinging curse of the rising generation.
The old reverence for authority has depart
ed. That beautiful harmony which once ex-
listed among families is rapidly passing away,
and in its stead VIC have those elements of
insubordination which but too frequently lead
boys into evil courses, and girls to sacrifice
themselves at the altar of ambition, or to
marry some rude clown with whom they can
have no sentiment in common. The fault
doubtless lies, to some extent, in that want
of system which is all essential to an appro-
pirate home education, but it also results, at
least in part, from the extreme freedom
which pervades the body polite, and occa-
sionally treads on the verge of license. 1t
is sad state of things, and suggestive of re-
Elections still more sorrowful. Weare young
yet as nation, but our boys are men, our
girls women, while the law recognise them
only as infants. Both sexes are older than
their years, and have thoughts and aspira-
tions which, in time past, rarely evinced
themselves in acts until fortified by wise
counsels or by the teachings of more ma
tured experience.
In this chaotic social condition, the regu-
lations adopted by careful parents to protect
from contamination the morals Of their chill
dren are stigmatised but too frequently as
tyrannous, and the general current sets so
strongly against these occasional barriers as
to tend to uproot them and bear them out to