Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1866-10-09
THE DRoNEs OF SOCIETY.

| ooi' oOo' ". nAoooy VA oA1 SApooA
who recently fell, while sitting one
night in his Office, at the hands Of
an unknown assassin. DR.. Marshall
made touching and eloquent mention
of the noble. high-born virtues of the
deceased-virtues which shone re-
splendently in his character, whether
in the field, at the freside or in his
daily pursuits as citizen and lawyer,
His aspirations to excel in goodness
and usefulness were prominently
dwelt upon in contradistinction to
the groveling natures of those IN
worthy hordes of idlers, professional
charlatans, non-entities, &C., who
constitute the consumers, non-pro-
ducers and pests of society. 1.-THE
learned professions" as they are
termed, are kept overwhelmingly
crowded by annual accessions to their
ranks, sent forth by the mushroom
institutions that have sprung up all
over the country, whose chief aim
seems to be to make money, at what
ever sacrifice of credit or respecta.
bility they may have. To effect this
purpose, they must needs vie with
one another and see which can get
together the largest number of stu
dents within their walls and which
can turn out the largest number of
graduates provided with sheepskins
or cheap diplomas by way of adver-
Using their fallacious merits. In
situations like these, based on merce-
nary principles and actuated by mer-
cenary motives, must naturally grind
out, as it were, by machinery, the
crudest materials in which the dross
of lucre will naturally predominant
over those finer attributes which hui
mamie the man and render him an
active, worthy and useful member of
society instead Of an idle, ignorant
pretender or mere mercenary specu-
lator upon the misfortunes of his
fellow creatures.
DIR. Marshall very correctly, OBJ
serves, that
"The great temptation of the
learned professions-law, medicine,
theology is, to idleness. Many a
young preacher of great early prom
Use, has, after a few years, ceased to
study, and fallen into the repetition
OF stale, insipid, spiritless common.
place insanities; grieving his friends,
wronglng the church, disappointing
the expectations of his kinsmen, and
betraying the highest trust with
which man can be invested.
"How small per centage of the
host of young medical practitioners,
on whom the hopes of science and
sorrow have been fondly fixed, ever
allow those generous hopes to be
realized ! Everywhere may be
found physicians whose minds have
not advanced a degree on any dial
OF progress for many years. Science
pushes its researches, and developes
its discoveries in right lines and on
ward movements but these drones
of Hsculapian failure creep round in
narrowing circles without increase Of |
skill or growth of medical Or general |
knowledge, and die forgotten.
"Law schools, annually pour out,
like swarming bees, their hundreds
OF dlpiomated graduates the future
attorneys, counselors and orators of |
our country. They are also the
prospective Judges, conservators of
liberty, politicians and statesmen.
What becomes of them all2 Where
goes that logical power? Where
the love of the great authors Where
the purpose to rise, to excel, to gain
alike. as is manly. just and becom-
ing, the honest loaf and the imper-
ishable namel | have seen a stream
that might have turned mill, sweep
over cliff and descend in powerless
spray. So have | seen these streams
Of professional promise and real
power, and superior worth, and splen-
did prospects, swept out of sight, out
Of fame, honor and usefulness, and
only a noble few of the silvery
threads utilized, and made to bless
the world"