The Baltimore County union., 1872-05-25
THE DRYING OF JEHU.


| kingdoms of Judea and OF Israel were always
in difficulty. Jehu had been a bold soldier
| and had become great captain, determined
in spirit, restless in energy, a man to be looked
| to in an emergency and selected to take the
| place of kings when kings failed. He was
driver. He put things through. No doubt, or
| halt, or half way about him. His mind made
up, and his act full and square behind it.
Courageous, impulsive, his soul in everything
| he did, the very manner in which he drove his
| chariot betrayed his character. The anxious
| people on the city walls, wondering at what
| thew saw in the plain, decided from that who
itmust be who was coming. He drove furiously.
His driving, was only an indication of the
man. Not a bad indication, only you manage
| it, Celebrity in action and thought, promptness
| in judgement, decision in opinion, are valua-
| BILE things. If man has these, wel-balanced
| by other desirable qualities, he has grand
| working elements. 1t is not only such men
who come to the surface and rule at great crises,
| but it is they who push the life OF every day to
| its full issue make something out OF them
selves and of life. ] think that the world is
| debtor to such.
There is a habit of furious driving among our
| young people-when they are not on so mo-
| mentous mission as Jehu-which needs look
| ing into and restraining, which l think capa-
| BILE of restraint, and in restraint the method
| and medium of good. If drive my horse with
| a curb-Ido not mean that eavage thing d
| curb bit-but with the curb of my even and
friendly hand, get more work out of him, he
| is a better servant our mutual relations are
| every way pleasant and so, if young man
will drive his own spirit that way, he will get
the best out of it, will keep it up unfaggng all
| through the way.
| Our American people have always been furi-
Gus drivers. They move fast, eat fast, act fast,
| live fast are impatient of delays, moderate
| in nothing. What tarries might as well be
| dead They are not content unless they dis
| tance all com petitors. II the favorite horse is
| beat he is sold if the ship is outsailed she is
condemned /; ifs railroad gives you i've minutes
| less travel it gets the custom. The man for
your money is the man who does things quick.
| If one will put up your house in three months
he shall have the contract rather than the
| better man who will take six the teacher who
| will take your child over most surface in least
| time has your name among his credentials
the church that will by quickest process insure
| you for the kingdom of heaven has most mem
bers, and the venture that promises you the
quickest return is that in which your fortune
| is embarked. This sort of avarice has always
| characterized us-not an avarlce OF time so
much as an avarice of result We are born
| into it. It. is in our blood. 1t is in the air. 1t
| is in our history. 1t shapes our start, and it
| shapes our progress. We can't help it. 1t is
| the condition, the feature Of our race. 1t dis
| tinguishes us among peoples, separates us from
| them, makes us alike the mockery and the
marvel. creates our success and causes our
| disaster. And all things in onr condition, the
newness ofgovernment and society, the breadth
| OF land, the variety of resource, the wealth Of
crops, and minerals, the independence of the
| people, the necessity for action, the demand
| for labor and for immediate result, the pres
sure of imperative things waiting to be done,
| the whole crowd and rush of life, aggravate
| and intensity the difficulty, group about the
| opening character influences it is hard to shake
| off, and almost as hard to tone down and shape
into valuable assistants to the character of lie.
young man begins life in the presence and
| under the pressure of these influences. He has
been educated by them at home and at school,
and catching the spirit of haste, of impatience,
he drops books, long before his mind has any
| ripeness, his brain any maturity, or he any
power of handling his thought or fairly looking
| at the future, and takes to business. Business
| is life, and there is no life till that is begun
Business itself has caught the spirit of furious
| driving. Time was when fortunes grew by
law, as all other things do that grow safely.
| There still fingers something of that old mer-
camille spirit, good deal laughed at, and yet
no better has taken its place. Aman waited then
| till the problem he had set himself was fairly
solved. He followed out its steps as fit had been
a matter of mathematics. Indeed it was that.
One step led inevitably to the next. Business
| was an art, a science; it required patience,
time, plan, kLi wedge, anJ, 70 hs a s'Gs
merchant was 70 be o mar OF resource, Iaa&
| of balance, man of power, man of large,
| exact if not rapid ombina ton. man oflucky
hit. Speculation, as we know it, was unknown.
or if known, illegtimate. bold stroke did
| not make a merchant however successful it
| might be, any more than a bold dash makes
| soldier. but every thing was slow, methodical,
| plodding. The merchant of the old school was
a man, take him for all and all, whose like we
shall not see again, who is loss to the world.
Business to-day is matter furious driving,
| a young man sees every one about him dashing
Oh fort MIA ut mat
| by and bye, but hap hazard dash at anything
| that promises immediate and brilliant result,
the more immediate and brilliant and the more
hazard the more it takes. He catches the
spirit oft. That is his idea. He strikes out into
the same way. He prepares himself for the
same thing. He trains himself, and gets to-
| gether his knowledge, not for the steady pull
| life, but for the dash. He cannot sit down to
| it calmly. He is restless and bustling. He
cannot touch what delays return. Return must
touch outlay. He must run risks, risks worry,
but risks may make wealth. He gets an uneasy
way, haggard look. He is on the brink of
success or failure all the time, hairs breadth
between him and ruin. Heloses elasticity, in
| terest in other things, becomes concentrated,
hard. His step is hurried. his manner alb
sorbed, his look preoccupied. His body stoops,
his brain whirls, his flesh dries, his eye faLes,
his face wrinkles, his hair drops off. He is
prematurely old, juiceless, and he goes into
the insane asylum or the grave; the bubble
| bursts, he has blasted name, a wretched
family, felon cell ; or he gets his coveted
riches and with them a cold, shriveled, miser
heart, and with that spirit that has no rest.
That's Just about the terrible gantlet young
man going into business has to run, and these
are the too frequent results. And they make
a terrible tale to have to tell about this humani-
ty of ours, so high, yet willing to stoop SO low,
they make a terrible peril for young man to
look forward to, fearful vortex in which to
| H., La,, . e
sterner stuff than most who is going safely
through. The syren's charm is very wnsome.
Strong men and brave men and good men have
| gone down before it. The song is a song of
hope, hope that not only tells fattering tales
but lying ones, hope which builds splendid air
castles but forgets to put the cellar underneath.
And is not that the reason why when he fails,
he fails so helplessly? Is not the ratio of re-
covery much smaller than when business was
an art and not a chance, when it moved slowly
and by law as the bishop in chess, and not err
ratio and by impulse, as the rover in croquet
There is the same recklessness, the same tu
rious driving in the matter of expense. 1t is
somewhat amazing the amount of money young
men spend, and what they spend it on. Where
| it comes from one does not alway know any
more than where it goes to. Is the half that is
told us true, and are young men driven by the
supposed exigencies Of their position, or by the
tyranny of any habit or pleasure to such re-
sort as is more than whispered? Is gambling,
in some form, so prevalent, speculation so COM
mon and debt so little regarded How is it
that many young men meet the expenses of
many indugences, ofdress Is there one in
hundred can really afford it, and are there not
many in reckless extravaganza, in spending on
themselves all they earn, if doing no worse,
paving the way to speedy and sure disaster
So is it with pleasures. If nobody else, the
young man sand rightly, being of pleasure.
Pleasure was made for him, made pleasant for
him. The young of every animal has pleasure
as its gift, its right. 1t lives through its pleas
ures. Sobriety comes with maturity pleasure
for the lamb, sobriety for the sheep pleasure
for the colt, sober wit for the horse pleasure
for the child, but with the putting away Of
childish things, the gradual outgrowth of that
as the leading thing. Still pleasure never is
outgrown. We may have it, we may seek it,
but seek it legitimately, in subservience to
other things. Here is the mistake The law
of proportion is not understood and kept by the
young man. He drives his pleasures furiously.
1t is all pleasure, and that madly, no modera
ton, no reticence, as it were, 20 letting up, no
denial. think it very true that there is moth
ing our people young or old so little understand
as the art of fenjoyment. We rush every thing
There is no holding back for by and bye /; it is
all now, used and used up. There is no taking
one thing at time it is every thing at once
There is no taking this up and getting the best
out of it, as a bee does out of fower-but
taking every thing up and getting the worst