New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-02-18

shop. boy who fiIcbes pennies from the I'll. Bds
~bea avsIice has done its perfect work. when ii
bss bard eDed the heart to homicide and nerved The
hard which slowly drops the subtle poison; when
The tevered soul feels that without money there can
be o position and no happiness, we have the dark
est ustra alton Of the tendencies Of the time and OF
the force Of the passions which they encourage.
An age which believes money getting to be the
yeri'able heroic, viii not be slow or scrupuous in
embodyiDe its faith in hard and horrible practice
If society must give itself up to believe lie, the lie
is from that moment master, be its name Man or
Mann on. and whether iss chief priests be Napo-
Icons or Palmers, Wellipgtons or Schuylers-only
the spectacle is dvested Of its prettiest features
when the cbivalry Of the tented field is exchanged
for the cbivalry Of Newmarket, ending after all in
stry chime and the eallows.
The unhappy man who was the other day sent so
swiftly to bis account was perhaps too faithful q
representative OF the spirit Of the hour. He started
with nothing, save an inhsxble determination to
force bis way in the direction which the world Ii
pie ased to consider up We believe that we are not
speaking with undue barshness Of the dead, when
We say he was hard, interruptions, selfish and de-
voted to money getting. There are many living
about US who would esteem these words, if applied
TO their characters, in no slight degree compliment
tary, and who would with great complacency inter-
pref them to mean nothing more than forethought,
Industry ard prudence-who would consider it the
hight of human felicity to own two houses in Bond
street and dividend paying stock i'll ba1k. If TO
get money wss the dominant idea Of DR.. Burdel's
hfe it may be said with perfect truth that to that
idea he was preeminenty faitafuI. And so he went
on planning plotting and pnching, with no end of
quarrels and ltgatiOns and scandaOus family euds,
until at last the boon which he sought was in his
possession. But alas bis were not the only abb
soIbiDg passions in the world. There was greed
for bis greed avarce for his avarice, vgor for his
vigor, and pride and love of pleasure equal to
his own. In this Hwhirling maze of society he en-
couDtered antagonists, many, and fierce, and fatal;
and thus was be smitten down in the fanced Sc
curly of his own domice, and for him the life
struggle was all over.
But even DOW, while he is sleeping &C quietly,
ard while those charged with his assassination
are awaiting the Investigations of the law, other
tragedies of Ike nature are rehearsing around US.
Avarice is still boarding, while penury shrinks
and covers in its corner; vulgar display still
awskens low ambitions, and our hard wOrldliness
whispers words of seduction into willing ears;
speculation still maddens and failure still bursts
heart and conscience; the rich are still getting
richer and the poor poorer; while for all cure of
this unacy we have only some pitiful theory that
more preachers and sermons are all that are needed.
We go on from day to day, with no rem upon our
desires, with lie and sham for our gospel, and
when retrbution comes We are fooishIy aghast
Let society be faithful to the veracities Of fe and
we shall have fewer memorable murders