Litchfield enquirer., 1874-09-03
The Struggle for Wealth.

No one can settle down in a European city or village for a month, and observe the iaboring classes, without noticing great difference between their aspirations, ambitions and habits, and those of corres- bonding class m thls country. He may see great poverty in a continental town, and men and women laboring severely and faFing m4nly. and Q hopeless gap p1ex- Hstlng betWeen classes; he may see the poor virtually the slaves of the rich; but he will witness a measure of contentment end daily participation in humble plea sare 0 which his eyes have been strang- CTS at home. There is a sad side to this pleasant picture. Much of this apparent contentment and enjoyment undoubtedly comes from the helplessness of the strug- gle for anything better. An impossible gaH exists between them and the educat- ed and aristocratic classes-a gulf which they have recognized from their birth; and having recognlzed thls, they have recog- nizad their own limitations. and adapted themselves to them. Seeing just what they can do and cannot do, they very ra- tlonally undertake to get out of life just what their condition renders attainable. Thers is is no far-off crowning good for ehem to aim at. so they try to get what they can on the way. They make much of fetedays, and social gatherings, and musie, and do what they can to sweeten their daily toil, which they know must be continued while the power to labor lasts
 In America it is very different. A hum- bie back-woodsman sits in the presiden- tial chair, or did sit there but recently: a Sailor takes the highest honors of the na- HDns Q eaual-driv6r becomes powerful millionaire; an humble clerk grows into a merchant prince, absorbing the labor and supplying the wants of tens of thousands
 In city, state and national politics, hun dreds and thousands may be counted of those Eb0 Eby enterprise and self-culture, and selkassertion, have raised themselves from humble positions to influence and place. There is no impossible gulf be- tween the lew and the high, every man holds the ballot. and, therefore, every man is person of political power and aoSeance; The rays0 of bnsiness enter prise are many, and the rewards of success are munifcent. Not year, nor, indeed. . month passes by, that does not illustrate the comparative ease with which poor Oen win wealth or acquire power. ]
 The oouaeqnence is that all but the wholly brutal are after some great good that lies beyond their years of toll. The European expects always to be & tenant; the American intends before he dies to own the house that he lives in. If city i661'f6rbid lthiS. he goes to the suburbs for his home. The European knows that life and labor are cheap. and that he can- not hope to win by them the wealth which willrealize for him the dream of future ease; the American finds his labor dear. and its rewards comparatively bountiful, % that his dream of wealth is a rational one. He. therefore. denies himself, works 5i Rfs Psiy hlsenesg1ss, issa geotsS,a ,S1s channels, all for the great good that oeckona him on from the far off, golden 3 &MNMI8 sGaa s4asyO aalYRd suasseg-a q T ala &R81kyRle9 Ap ApeElcan never lives yin the spEesepE ssI he i4dplges in, as recreation,
 irs purely Tor heaith sake, and at long -interyals. or in great emergencies. Hs