The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-07-04
Our Young Men.

of his life, gave utterance to q lamen-
tation, which, far from being peculiar
to himself, tells the mournful story
of thousands
''The waters have COVE over me.
But out of the black depths, could I
be heard, I wou' cry out to oil those
who have set a1uot in the perilous
flood. Gould the youth to whom the
flavor of the first wine is delicious at
the opening scenes, or the entering
of some newly discovered paradise,
look into my desolation and be made
to understand what dreary. thing it
is when he can feel himself going
down precipice, with open eyes and
will, to his destruction, and have no
human power to stop it, and feel it
all the way emanating from himself,
to see the goodness emptied out Of
him, and yet not be able to forget o
time when it was otherwise; bear the
piteous spectacle of his own ruin !;
could he see my feyered eye, fevered
with last nights drinking, and fever
ishly looking to to-night's repeating
of the folly; could he feel the body
of the death out of which I cry
hourly to be delivered, it were
enough to make him dash the spark
ling beverage to the earth, in oil the
pride of its mantling temptation"
Among the young men of the
South, dissipation has reached o
point well calculated to excite alarm.
Many theories have been advanced
to account for this state of things
By one, it is regarded as tho natural
revulsion from the excitement of o
five years war; by another, the de-
sire to drown in oblivion tho disap-
pointmcnt and humiliation of defeat
Unquestionably these have had their
effect. But the old saying-"an idle
brain is the DEVILS .work-shop"-has
more to do with the matter than we
are disposed, at first sight, to imagine.
AS the Petersburg Espress truthfully
says, (in an extended article, applica-
BILE to nearly the entire South, J
idleness and vice are linked in indis-
soluble bonds. Such being the situa-
tion, any scheme looking to reform
must first throttle the monster idio-
ness before we can anticipate any
lasting triumph over the minions of
vice.
We will not dishonor our brave
boys by ascribing this idleness to a
disinclination or positive unwilling
. ness to work. Such cannot be the
case. The number of young men in
this city, Mt the present time, without
employment, is absolutely painful
and depressing. Why is it that they
flock to tho cities? Their sojourn
there involves O sacrifice of time,
labor and morals, which this impove-
rished country can i'll afford to lose.
While single acre of land through
out this whole country remains un-
cultivated, while single plow-share
remains without hand to guide its
iron force, no man, with good health
and sound body, need plead his
inability to find work. There is
work enough to absorb not only all
the idle, unemployed muscle which
sleeps at home, but enough to engage
tho stalwart energy Of million of
emigrants.
The disrepute which unfortunately
attached itself to labor, disappeared
with the extinction of slavery. Here
toforo, under the old regime, our
people acquired certain notions in
regard to the respectability of labor,
which, peculiar to ourselves, were by
no means creditable to the good sense
of our people. But the war has
changed everything. Poverty stalks
abroad in the land, and in its march
leaves no household without pain
full witness of its presence. Pride
and poverty are anything but congo.
malt is impossible that they should
occupy the same couch without pro-