Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1859-04-14
MODERN CROAKERS.

History is frog pond, full of croakers.
From Thucydides and Herodotus down to
Grote and Buckle-from Moses down to
Motley, the lugubrious plant resounds from
the marshes of all eras. Things have always
been going wrong; death has ever been
in the pot If we are to rely upon writers,
there never was time when the world turned
smoothly on its axis, and there never will be.
The past is one wide field of crime and desc.
lation, and the future an endless vista of
woes greater than any yet experienced by
the hspless human race. How wearily and
soul.sick sounds the voice of the wisest of
men, Solomon, There is nothing new un-
der the SUM- How the prophets, the poets,
the historians of all nations echo back the
cry, 'All is vanity and vexaion of spirit
A certain mournful comfort is to be de-
rived from the sad experience of mankind
as attested by the chronicles of old. If
things have always been in bad-a very
bad-way, it is something to know that peo-
pie managed, after fashion, to live on and
worry through their trials. In spite of wars,
pestilences, and famines innumerable, the
powers of nature were kept steadily at work,
the seasons came in due order, the children
of men were born, and food and raiment ade-
quate to their wants were Vouchsafed unto
them. Life has never ceased to be CRATE
full boon to the sons of Adam. There never
was an hour when mankind with one con-
sent sought release from the anguish of ex-
istence in universal suicide. Nay, there nev-
er was a moment when the vast majority
of mankind did not 6nd the fever called
living delight, worthy of indefinite pro.
traction And yet the croakers have never
ceased to croak The moralists and immer-
alists alike have abused the very thing of all
others which they most highly priced; the
thing for which most of them would have
bartered house and lands, name and fame,
family and friends, even honor itself.
Why is this2 The sufficient answer will
be found in the factthat man was not born to
be satisfied Fool |! exclaimed Carlyle, 'dost
thou not know that the universe itself would
not ease thy craving?' The further answer
is, that life is too often mis.spent, and, in
deed, wilfully misspeut, but, by reason of
'ill-annexed opportunity and carelessly guar
ded passion, brought to a pro6tess couclu-
sion. No wonder, then, that there should
have been and should still continue to be an
abundance of croakers. But, if croakiug
still continues, this much may be said in
favor of the modern croaker: He cannot
croak with the hearty good will, the uim and
vociferousness of his predecessors; and this
because the one all-important essential of
successful croaking has been taken away
The croaker, like any other professional ar
tist, needs large and apprecia'ive audience.
Such an audience is rather hard to find now
a.days, owing, not TO the factthat the lovers
of good croaking have ceased to exist, but
because they have been so dispersed and in-
termixed with hopeful, active morals, that
the modern croaker, though he croak never
so sweetly, can attract few admirers in any
one community.
If it were worth ones while to Go so in
sane thing as argue With a crosker, it might