Beaufort Republican. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1871-1873, 1871-11-02
THURSDAY NOVEMBER, ., 1871.
Official Paper Of the State and County.

There is one lesson to be learned by the
great Chicago fire which is almost sure to
be overlooked. These are fast and hasty
days. The American nation are fast
and hasty people. Almost everything is
sacrificed to speed. Above all things we
make haste to accumulate property. We
set an over weening value upon property.
That which property can procure is over
valued, and we hasten for a fast and lux
urious style of living. So most all people
live beyond their means. AS property is
too much the standard Of ones position
in society, if We can live, as ifon basis
Of property, we hope to acquire the same
consideration among our fellows.
So health, rest, education, culture, Sc
curity, the enjoyment of life, not to say
virtue i:svlf arc too often sacrificed to has
ten on. mere accumulation of money. Es-
pecially is this true in a young and grow
ing country like the West.
All capital which is not put to the actual
accumulation of itself is held as dead cap
ital, so the incidents necessary to ones
business are made as hastily and as cheap
Iy as possible. Houses are made of wood
for speed and economy, sidewalks and
pavements follow the same rule. Streets
are laid out on the natural level Of the
ground to be raised and graded by and by.
Everything, in short, must conspire to the
great end, viz be nan of wealth in the
shortest possible time.
But one cannot go on contrary to the
natural course Of things without nature
having something to say about it. The
time of reckoning is sure to come. Para
Tysis seizes upon the over strained nervous
system and brings about an enforced rest,
Apoplexy swoops down upon the brain
and snuffs out life without warning.
The love of wealth or the show ofwealth
and the position it gives in society, over
comes the moral principles, and embezz
mentand fraud obtains what we cannot
wait for, and exposure and ruin are sure
sooner or later to follow, with suicide or
The prison. A railroad bridge gives way or
a train fills to be signalized from false CcOn-
omy, or for the same reason steam boilers
are not properly inspected or attended,
and hundreds of human beings sink into
their graves without warning, in one ter
rible holocaust. And now comes Chica-
60. The fire iend scizcs upon those woolen
structures, built in the haste to get rich,
now that his set time has come, and in
horrible delight at the prey before him,
presses the wind into his service and ltaps
from house to house, from block to block,
from street to street, and with terrible fd-
ry licks up With his tongue of fl tine, stone
brick, mortar,-the very dust of the city
and the business part Of the city is no
more. The fire seems to seek the hasty,
fast, feverish business part of the city as It's
legitimate prey. That consumed and the
fire fiend withdraws.
And 50 it is through all the ramiifca-
tions of American life. We despise the
solid foundations we cannot wait to lay
them; they cost too much; we must rush
on to the great end Of life, wealth and its
euinyments. We cannot afford to obtain
the education aud mental discipline which
a first class college gives, and so "com'
mercial schools" and ''collcgiate insti'
tutcsn spring up over all the land, &c
gloss us over with a brilliant warn sh, and
this gives the direction TO the entire life O
a large number ofOur young men. 50 that
we can reach and enjoy the spells nothing
els. is of any Importance, thas corrupted