The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1858-04-28
Hard Times.

There is no denying that these are hard times over
the whole Union. North, South, East and West, We
hear the same dolorous accounts, Of lack Of work and
lack Of money. We are Of thnse who believe that the
~re-.etion sitter the crisis has already commenced, but it,
effects - Jet are scarcely perccptible among the body Of
the people.
In our own town We meet with many long faces, and
with many of our citizens who are suffering from that
cpidemieal disorder the blues They mast recollrct,
however, that the azure complexion overspreads the
world, and is confined to no particular locsiity. The
whuls matsr X nov reduced u a question If endurance.
We must abide Ly the dispensatiops of Providence, and
take tho present period as part Of tho experience Of a
life time.
Many when the crisis CANT Aew East, supposing that
the West alone was to suffer. In their old homes, how.
ev.r. they found shings still worse. Many we're unable
to obtain work 1t any wages, others we're obliged to for
sake mechanical pursuits and take to breaking stone in
the Ceotrsl Park Of NewSYork aud We could nov
name three " tour from this town WIN have written to
their friends here that they longed TO return, but could
not raise the money to get back. I'm
Let our citizens remember that scarce as money may
be they do not lack the means of material success.
Every industrious man Can obtain for his labor a piecs
Of ground to cultivate sufficient for the wants of his fam
lily. lie can also obtain in pay for work lumber enough
to build himself a residence. Let him not lie idle.
ldleness breeds nothing but Dissatisfaction and evil
habits. Industry costs nothing, and the working man.
muscles are a bank account ut which his drafts are never
dishnnorel. An active arm eats n" m"re than an idle
one. anil i, much more healthy. LIT our mechanics if
they have Eothing else to do, build themselves u Tome.
They have the leisure now, and will not have it in bet
ter times; and when better times couie, as come they
will, they will be glad that even out Of the carcass Of
disaster, like Sampson fold, tLeys have extracted the
honey Of profit.
There are two things that lie at the base Of the pros.
only solid things God has given u. Mems muscles
of utility, and Of luxury, that surround US. They have
been going upceas,ngly since Adam was kicked out Of
the garden-a vast, interminsble, irresistible succession
Of hereditary machines.-anl the result we see 10 the
present condition If the world. On the bosom Of the
earth We were born, from the bosom Of the earth we
draw our su~tenance, AMI back to the bosom Of the earth
we must crawl when our pilgrimage is ended. The
prolific breast of nature has never yet denied her chill.
dren The wealth Of the banking house, or the hoard
ed contents Of the stocking, diminish with every sue.
!cessivc draft all the accumulations of man fade away ;
time inserts his in>idious fingers into every purse, but
the productions Of the great earth are perennial and ill.,
cxhau<tible the. Creator sits at the roots, and leeds the
harvest with unsparing hand,
In these troubled times let the public recollect that
ever at their feet lies q mine of wealth, and that what
they plant new they will reap in perhaps a season Of
greater need. Let every foot of groupi be cultivated.
There IS y pleasure in the act itself, and . still greater
pleasure in the results to be attained by it. r.f.cEs n