New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-01
YOUNG AMERICA. LABOR, WOMEN
Lecture by Eleanor ID. lockwood.
From the Cincinnati Gazette.l

Miss Eleanor ID. lockwood, a niece of
Edward Everett, and brilliant writer, lee
tured last evening at Melodeon Hall to
fair audience Miss ROckwOods delivery is
not particularly striking, but the brilliancy
of her thoughts and the unique manner in
which they are expressed. male her lecture
one of the most interesting Of the season.
She commenced as follows:
Young America, Young England, Young
France, Young Italy. This is the cant
phrase Of the day. 1t was coined thirty
years ago in England, and applied con
temptuously to a party of dreamers and po-
cts who proposed to remove the ignorance
and degradation of the laboring class by
outdoor sports, dances, dinners and the dis
tribution of gifts as prizes. Or course they
failed. Young England soon became ridicu-
lOus, and was laughed out of the world but
the true youth of England was Richard
Golden, with cheap bread for every cot
tagc, and John Bright, with the ballot for
every man. France. Italy and Germany
then took up the name. Young France and
Young Italy mean the men who make the
Emperor William anxious while he besieges
Paris, and made Napoleon old before his
time. They are the men who bear alOft the
torch kindled by Jefferson when he wrote
the Declaration of Independence.
What. then, is Young America. AS we
usually paint him, he is half IA rowdy. He
smokes and swears; visits drinking saloons,
and drives fast horses; votes lectures and
reading rooms slow, but never misses the
MINISTRIES OF the theatre. He can not tell
you what Congress Is doing. and has no
interest in new inventions or famous books.
But did you wish to know in how many
hours Benefits yacht crossed the Atlantic,
or in how many minutes B0nner's horse
ran a mile, You'll be sure to fine him posted.
Young America can fight, but he is more
willing to arrange dog fight. Young
America takes all the illustrated journals
but even H0lper's HeeLly is too learned for
him, though he sometimes spies out the
Jokes when he is locked in a car and has
smoked all he dares. He thinks good man
ners belong only to milksops. SO he Guilt
Yates dashing impudence, snubs his
mother, and half of the words he uses
could not be found in the dictionary.
Young America stares everything out of
countenance when he is not sober, and
skulks away like shamefaced dog when
he is. AS he never reads print finer than Il
theatre bill or a street poster, you can not
blame the print Tor his bad eyes. He is
usually Democrat, hates an lrishman, and
would not conceal it to get his vote. But
Young Ireland is stone blind: he votes for
Young America all the same. He does not
face his own thoughts. He never argues
it takes too much time and too many brains:
besides, it is SO much easier to dispose OF a
man by saving: .Oh he is fanatic lie
throws up his hat with loud "hurrah.'
when the vice of New York OutvOtes the
virtue, but is horror stricken at the idea OF
the negroes voting-neGroes are 50 ignO-
rant! If Young England was a fool, Young
America is a vain. noisy, empty coXcOmb,
merely good material running to waste.
D,,f oil
boy, rotten before he is ripe is not The real
Young America. The real Young America
is always equal to the situation. Whatever
task God has set him he does thoroughly.
Two hundred years ago he landed on these
rocks and, before he slept extemporized
constitution and laws of Which no State had
set the example AS Bancroft says: Men |
wondered at that craftsmanship then, and
the world has not yet ceased wondering"
God gave him a continent to subdue. and but !
few hands to help. but he harnesscd nature |
into his team. and, when Europe next |
looked this way, States and cities, roads |
and vessels. colleges and parties, were i'll
full blast. He invented steamboats,. built
railroads. invented reaping machines, ana
sits with folded hands ttlklng politics,
while steam drags the wheat and coal to
his elevator, and keeps count Of the bushels
hy machinery, packs it in cars, and whlrls
ii to the seaboard. Besides this he does
many other wonderful things which amaze |
the Old World Nature tempted him to a |
struggle, and he beat her.
BY Young America | mean the masses,
and the element to which would call your
attention is their practical common sense,
which is Of infinitely more value than an
the book learning in the world, The book
learned man is a clumsy. helpless, awkward
creature, while uneducated Young America
Is thrifty, wide-awake, sagaclous, enrr-
getlc creature always equal to the emer- |
gency. The commuu sense of the masses
is wiser than the heaviest brain God ever
lent the race" That has shaped our
history in the past, and will do it in the
future. 1t was that that subiugated the
continent. All the great inventions are the
work of the common sense of the masses.
BENJAMIN Franklin, the Boston tradesman.
is listened to in national politics. political
economy, morals, general literature. He !
never went to college. Sunday schools
were the creation of tinker. The first
torch OF reformation was lighted by the |
ulain farmers of Switzerland.
The sublime teachings OF Christianity
were committed to twelve fishermen. The
Saviour did not go to college lie respected
no aristocracy of intellect or education.
Scholars were ignored by Hun. If such
truths can be committed to the common
sense of the masses, what truths are there
that we need fear to trust to 1t! B0okish
men. learned in Greek, sheer at Young
America as mere rude strength without
IDEAS. but while we remember the history Of
the last fifty years, the literary class should
keen modestly silent Their record is dis
graceful. While the excitement Of aboli-
ton ragged, with one or two excep-
tions. the literary class was tlmldiy
silent, or openly eloquent on the mob side
The masses we're the first TO rise ABOVE
a