Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-02-24

should be, it will do the fdgety peo-
pie of this county some good.
Yours, truly, R. L. S.
al Do you know jenkins I? He hain't
lived here long; came from t'other place,
where he staid but little while. If
you know Jenkins, you are aware that
he amt quite satisfied, here, and talks
of ssselling OUT and hunting up a
better location. This will make his
tenth removal within the past fifteen
years. You see, jenkins is an ener-
getic and go-ahead individual, who is
intent upon making ''his pile" of o
sudden. The usual way of acquiring
riches, with experience and gray hairs,
is not the way for Jenkins. He was q
farmers boy-was given a good piece
of land, and good start of .'stock
things" But this raising crop only
once q, year was too slow business, and
our Jenkins ''sells OUT" gets a stock
of goods, partly on credit, and turns
merchant. Six months thereafter, and
when his goods were we'll sold out, and
rather injudicious credit given, and
Jenkins notes begin to fall due, he
concludes store-keeping is a miserable
business, and he "sells out" pretty well
plucked, and rents hotel and goes to
tavern keeping. Thence he imagines
he has talent, by talking to travellers,
and school teachers, and bar-room pol
iticians, and "sells out" tavern keep
ing, leaving portion Of his ren. un-
paid, and turns to studying law OF
physic, with surreptitious design OF
practicing. But soon he wonders at the
miserable life it affords him-and is
envious of and denounces the old law.
yers and doctors of the town, who are
entitled to the public confidence and
patronage they are receiving, because
of their lifelong devotedness to theil
profession.
Having exhausted the round of pur-
suit in his native town and vicinity
Jenkins, "sells out'' finally all his re-
naming little stuff, including clock
stock and BARREL" and emigrates. HI
discovers that Texas or California il
just the place for him, and off he goes
with wife and children, and just none,
enough to get them there, by deck pas
sage.
Now, when our jenkins gets to Tex
as, it looks quite fine at first. For h
is man Of considerable energy ant
hope-but he is ever killed up by hi
want of steady perseverance-of bal
ance wheel. He soon finds that none,
is as scarce, and crops as slow, ant
times as "tight,' if not "a little tight
err than they were back in good oil
"Sucker." Then the new country ant
climate had its drawbacks.
And wife was home sick, and the chill
dren dissatisfied and sickly. Atlengtl
jenkins groaned for his old home, ant
his old father sent him on means enough
to get back to the Prairie State as
thin as slab, and as poor as a :hurcl
mouse. jenkins then began to worl
around; at length rented cheap farm
''sold OUT" and went to teaming
and then to working in a saw-mill
where he was struck by log ant
crushed to death.
| Poor jenkins, having lived hard
died. HIS children were left as lega
cies to friends and the poor house, -
And yet, Jenkins brothers and othe
neighbors' boys, not bit more talen
ted or industrious than he, were living
on their good farms, doing well ant
Independent. They stuck to their bus.
iness and had never taken the s'sel
out" fever, so disastrous to many il
the West, and in fact in all the States
Look around you, upon every hand
in city and country, and We see thi
fever raging and destroying. 1t is on
of the fatal by-paths that decoys tn
energies Of Americans from legitimate
regular and prosperous business occu
pation.-.A2t0n Democrat.