Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1857-07-16
ASHAMED. OF ONES BUSINESS.

The editor OF the Baltimore San makes
the following sensible remarks: -
It was blemish on the character of Sir
Walter Scott that he was at heart ashamed
of his business. Enjoying reputation in
English literature second only to that OF
Shakespeare, he yet secretly believed duke,
and much the more prince, to be better
man than himself, and worshipped them ac-
cordingly The ambition Of his life was to
found family. For this purpose he toiled
to acquire acre after acre; for this purpose
he became partner with his booksellers;
for this purpose he accepted baronetage,
fattefed royal debauchee and defended
more than one fagitious public act. Part
his mind and part was nourished by his study
ofmediaval and knightly literature. Alas
he paid the penalty for his weakness. His
son learned to blush, amidst his aristocratic
fellow officers, that his father had labored
for his bread as an author he himself be-
came bankrupt in his old age; and now,
though scarcely generation has elapsed
since his death, his name no longer reigns
at Abbottsford, his baronetage is extinct.
and his dreams of country or family destroy
ed forever.
There are thousands, even in this coun-
try, ashamed of their business, and with
less excuse than Scott. For in England the
law recognizes hereditary landed aristoc-
racy, so that certain social sanction is
given to the prejudice existing against "new
men," But here we have no governing
class, the defendants Of conquerors, to boast
of eight hundred years of political and social
supremacy. On, the contrary there is not
a millionaire in America who is not either
the architect of his own wealth or the son Of
one who was. Not by knightly rapine,
thank God but by honest labor, have the
fortunes that exist here been accumulated.
No man in the United States can look down
on another as beneath him on grounds SINH
lar to those which induce long-descended
English mobiles to despise porvenue;; for
here all are "new men," since even those
who have been wealthiest the longest differ
from the poorest only by having possessed
riches for generation or two. A wise man
will laugh at the folly which induces even
the oldest families in England to claim su-
periority over others, because all claim a
common ancestor in Noah, and because vir-
tue and merit, nor birth Or wealth, are the
true standards by which to judge citizen
but how much the more absurd appears the
claim of one American to be considered bet
ter than another on the score of wealth and
family, when all alike are but men of YES
terday.
Instead of being ashamed of ones bust
ness, one should be proud of it. "Never
despise your bread and butter,' says an old
adage; and the words should be adopted as
:; text by every young man beginning life.
= The first duty of an adult citizen is to be
independent of others, and this nobody can
become who does not earn sufficient for a
livelihood. Whatever work is honest is al
so honorable Society demands different
sorts of handicraft and other avocations, just
as a machine requires levers, beams, full
crums, wheels, &C.; and hence blacksmith
or ploughman is just as necessary to the
common veal as lawyer or doctor, and
therefore need be none the more ashamed of
his calling. To be idle, indeed, even if one
is rich, is to play 4he part of a useless APP
pendage to the State, and is conducive nei-
Their to the physical, intellectual nor moral
health, OF all the shams of modern socie-
ty, one Of the greatest is the worship of
wealthy and titled drones, who have out
lived their real mission. like the mobiles of
England have. But there is sham still
mightier. It is the sham of despising
man for his business, especially in a repub-
lie such as ours, for, in point Of fact, citi-
zen is honorable only in proportion to the
assiduity with which he follows some honest
pursuit.