True American. [volume] (Steubenville [Ohio]) 1855-1861, 1858-04-28
An Entarnriaine Yonng Man.

"a young man juslliberated from the
apprenticeship Of a common clerk con
ceives the idea Of becoming immensely
rich in a few years, and resolves to open
wholesale dry goods store, or perhaps
large banking house From his late
employers he receives flauerlng letters of
accommodates, just as quack medicines
receive puffs from newspapers and from
his mercantile acauaintances he begs tes-
timonials. just as bad actors beg applause
from the galleries OF theatres. Armed
thus with both tie sword and shield Of
the commercial imposlor, he obtains cre-
dit; bOrrows money opens q splendid
establishment; employs dozen dashing
clerks /; marries a belle who must be
attended by train of liveried menials ;
rents first clasi house on the most
fashionable avenub receives on deposit
the earnings of laborers and seamstresses;
drives splendid bpan of bIooded horses :
gives dinners, evening parties and birth
day balls buys box tickets atlhe theater;
heads the list whenever complimentary
beneft is lendertd 10 a favorite actress ;
occupies frontpew at church; never
offers less than hundred dollars at a
donation party5 spends the summer at
Newport or Saratoga; announces his
intention to visit London and Paris the
ensuing spring borrows, and borrows,
and borrows until he can borrow no more
and then there is a startling rumor that
a failure has occurred, involving in ruin
hundreds of industrious and economical
people. The telegraph sends the astoun-
ding intelligence all over the country,
editors consult their dictionaries for words
to utter their regret and establishment,
commercial men tender their sympathy,
and express renewed Confidence in the
integrity Of their unfortunate brother,
and the cheated poor again commence
their weary journey at the bottom of their
steep and rugged path of life. The author
of all this wasteful extravigance, and all
this glittering falsehood and all this
pompous liberali,y, and all this snobbish
admiration, and all this undeserved sym
pathy, and all this pitiously abused conf
dence, absents himself from public
assemblies till Tue nine days tempest has
blown over, and then comes forth to seek
some new field of operation, and play the
same game over again.
The shivering beggar who steals web
Of flannelis promptly arrested and punish
ed. No sympathising crowd follows him
to the grim entrance of the solitary and
dreaded abode Of counterleiters, thieves
and assassins. No sorrowful paragraph
reluctantly tells how, in an evil hour, he
committed the unfortunate deed. And
yet how small does this poor offence
seem alongside of the enormous crimes
of the wicked and reckless vagabond who
steals the value of many webs of flannel !;
who though be never earned the daily
food of starving dog, yet often squan,
dered in a single nights licensious riot
more than 8 whole years wages of an
industrious man who beggared hundreds
of families whose humble dwellings he is
not worthy TO enter; and Whoa bank
rupt debtor, yet wasting the substance Of
others who with the most shameful extra
vigance, and covered all over with recent
stains of treachery. falsehood, fraud and
extortion-goes off the stage which he
has dsgraced, not only unpunished, but
with the sympathy Of most whom he did
not rob. ~ Exchange.