Delaware State journal and statesman., 1865-08-22
A MORAL DRAWN FROM THE DAILY
JOURNALS.

JOURNALS.
From the New York Post
One page of one of the morning Journals of
Saturday last was filled with acoounts of the
festivities going on 0t Saratoga, Cape May,
Newport Nahant, Lake George, and other
watering places. Turning 10 the next page the
reader found an account of the theft of three
hundred thousand dollars by m obscure bank
clerk. On one page We were told of the
beautiful forms aud the elegant toiletes Of
fashionable women; on the next of the crime
and debauchery uf a clerk aud his harlOts. Here
are dances and dinners, there disgrace, despair
and suicide.
ls there no connection between the twor Is
1t merely by accident that we find in the same
sheet two such pictures OF life Or is there not
rather profound warning to he drawn from the
collocaliont We hate the vice which is set 80
nakedly before us-may we not AS well consider
what produces III There was a time when men
aud women were content to live plainly, to work
| patiently, to await cuntentedly the sure if
moderate rewards Of industry aud temperance
H Is Fortunate for US. Hs a people, that the great
majority OF Americans hnv0 still this patience
anu conlentment II is not true, what the
sensation journals would persuade US, that our
society is made up of such gtterng and foolish
butterflies, and depraved and reckless hawks as
hgure in the fashionable chronicles, and shine
at balls and in the g0mbling.hells
But 1t is true that large aud growing class
oil Americans make haste to he rich and delight
10 spend their quickly gotten means in.uurepub
lloan display and vice. Aud when Smith
speeuator, ambitious to dazzle hotel walters
and chamber maids. shines with his ilashily.
dressed wife at Saratoga, and dspors himself
oetore The world as On elegant and dissipated
ldleri need he be surprised that his or his
neighbors clerks some day walk off with his
money, and are found to have been initiating
their master Mt his expense in the humber
concert saloon Like master like man" is an
old and true saying The young man who comes
from the country with correct and even puritan.
ical ideas. sees his employer driving fas,
horses, drinking costly wines, living extraya-
eanuy IN every way and how long is il before
he TOO Is infected with the desire to live al the
same ratet ''o
But he ought not TO he. Ought he not ,
lie looks to his superiors, to those whom he
KNOWS TO be Older aud believes to be wiser than
himself, for example. Is he wrong? Perhaps
ne ls-but he is only mOrtal-his blood is fired
as easily as his masters and the alluring picture
OF liie's Pleasures which that master presents
TO him, too surely wins him to other hopes and
expectations than those with which he came to
the city.
But because there is virtue shall there be ma
cakes and ale 2" Truly, but let il be cakes and
ale, ald not champagne, not fotous living. NOT
useless anG tasteless exlravagauce in every part
oi me- let II he plain, substantial, sensible
enjoyment, not pell-nell racing after pleasure.
and teverlsh draining to the dregs of every
cup. Let it he the steady sober, tempernte
enjoyment of hOneTably.won leisure mt the
senseess and shamefpl display and extrayarance
winch dsgraces the mobiles of monarchy in the |
esteem OF the people, and which is doubly dis. |
graceful in republic
Mhlle pleasure eseekers run riot at Saratoea |
oil. III
clerks and other humble pleasure seekers taking |
their course at the expense Of their rn,,l ,t,il
Inc TWO phenomena are necessarily Connected |
as one grows 10 will the other We cannot |
draw the line we cannot say this man shall
live disorderly life at fifty thousand per
annum' and this one, his servant, shall remain n
nodel Of oil the virtuea at twelve hundred II
ID lhe masters walk that forms the servant and
II is the masters eye that makes him faitbfnI
Opportunity aud importantly are too strong for
average virtue, and cakes aud ale cease 10 satisfy
when they are despised by those above u.s.
NOT let the fashionable jewellers think thev
win the esteem Of the public by their foolish
ostentation II is mercy Of the reporters. that
they conceal, in initials the names Of those whose
vulgar and unseemly display attracts their
praises. To print their names in full wonld bo
to hold them up to the contempt of the great
mass OF the people-to point the finger of scorn
~ them. For whatever may be thought to the
contrary, there is, in the American mind. n
strong love for, and admiration of, simplicity.
oehef that plain courses aud frugal life are
beet, not only for the individual, but for society
aud that the way of life which prevails this wear
% lhe prominent watering places is anti-repub
ican, Injurious, aud disreputable It needs but {
another summer like the present to drive all {
lelf-respectng people from such places as c
saratoga. Already our best citizens are seeking c
luIeter resorts. They do not like to expose their
IONS and daughters to the temptations, TO 8
lequaint them with tho modes of life. or to 8
place them In the company of those who take g
he lead in the prevalent fashionable riots ?
rhey prefer quieter and more rational epiov- f
nenis for themselves and their families. Il