Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1859-04-13
Excitement oersus Happiness.

II seems impossible for the American People |
to keep entirely clear, for even single day, of
the whirlpool of excitement. 1t is seldom that |
they released from the excitement of political
warfare, or that they DO not hear the appeals OF
patriotic party leaders, to come forward and save
the country from ruin. But aside from politics, |
the desire to accumulate an immense fortune in
few months, is the great cause of the excitement
which is constantly agitating the minds of a
large majority of our People. When, some ten
or eleven years ago, it was announced that i'm
mense quantities of gold had been discovered in
California, the excitement which followed was
without parallel in the history of the Nation.
The emigration to the new E2dorado Immediately
became immense, and men of every conceivable
profession, trade and calling became gold seek
There can be no doubt that all, or at least
majority OF them, left home with the hope an
imating their hearts, thai in few months they
would be able to return to their homes and fam
lies, the possessors Of sufficient amount of
wealth to secure for themselves and those they
loved, all the comforts and pleasures which are
always supposed to be the attendants on an
abundant supply of this worlds goods. They
did not perceive the trials, privationS and disap
pointments that were in store for them in the
land of gold. Like Jobs friend, ''vsion was
before them'-a vision of untold wealth. In
bidding adieu to comfortable homes they did not
stop to calculate the possibility of their return
ing 20 them in a few years poor and destitute,
and with broken hearts, and health gone forever.
They entertained no idea of accumuIating wealth
IL California by the slow means resorted to in
the Atlantic States they seemed to think that
in the land they were going to- they would have
nothing to do but to scrape up a sufficient
amount of gold dust to satate their avarice, and
then return to their homes They ignored the
idea Of slow plodding industry. What wonder
then that thousands were disappointed, and re-
turned to their homes poorer, if rot wiser and
better men than they left them. The California
gold fever ragged unabated for years, and just as
it was beginning to abate, the Frazer River ex.
citement commenced. All who were disposed to
seek wealth under difficulties, Immediately star
ted for the new diggings, confident that their
dreams were about to be realized. They were
all disappointed, and the majority of them soon
returned to their homes, poor and dispirited-
The Pixies Peak diggings are now ''all the go,''
and the emigration to them this Spring will be
ces us that not more than one out of every one
hundred emigran.s will succeed in acquiring
wealth, even if the Pixies Peak diggings are all
they are represented to be.
This restless longing after ealth this ardent de-
sire to acquire it in few months or years seems
TO be the most prominent characteristic of
the American people. 1t is this feeling, this
desire, which is constantly inducing even the
citizens of our own State-good old honest, con-
servative Pennsylvania-to leave their comforta-
BILE farms and emigrate to California or ssmove
West" 1t has also given birth to the fillibus-
tering expeditions which have so often disgraced
our country during the last eight years.
We are the friend of the spirit of enterprise
and bold adventure when properly restrained
and directed. TIE first settlers cf the United
States were adventures, and they were enter
prising men. But they We're also common sense
men, and never allowed themselves to be carried
away by wild excitement. Unlike the followers
of Pizarro and Montezuma. they were not mere
gold seekers, and enemies of all, however inno
cent, who CHANGED to stand in the pathway
which they supposed would lead them to the
object of their hopes and desires Like men who
N,
they labored for wealth. and acquired it. After
enjoying it during the evening of their days. they
bequeathed it to their children, along with the
example of their virtues and industry richer
legacy still. Theirs was the enterprise which
develops the resources of nation, and makes it
truly great; which converts the barren wilder
ness into bright and happy country-a second
Eden.
The intense excitement with which the minds
OF large portion of the American people are
constantly agitated, is directly adverse to what
may be called National Happiness and the
proper cultivation of the arts of peaceful indus
try. Thousands who were induced during their
youthful years to embark in wild and cbimericaI
enterprises, have ended their days in obscuritv.
and died destitute of the ordinary comfort. Of
life. If they had been content to tread the path