The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-01-15
UNCER74INTY OF WEALTH.

"The absence of the law of primogeni
ture causes a frequent change of owner
ship in the private residences which con-
tribute so much to the adOrnment of our
cities. While the head of the family lives,
the home may be retained-though very
often a reverse of fortune compels him to
seek humber quarters-but when he dies
the heirs are obliged to get rid of the too
expensive luxury. How many of the
houses built in Sc. Louis twenty years ago
are now owned by the men who erected
them, or their descendants How many of
later date, now occupied by their builders,
will be in possession of their present ten.
ants, or their descendants, twenty years
hencef Other influences beside the lack
OF priDOgeniture contribute tn this, IN
sOme-respects unfortunate result There
are more ups and dow ps in life in tue new
world than in the old. Fortunes are made
much more quickly, and disappear much
more rapidly. Wealth il seldom trans
mitted beyond the second gener@1ion, and
in many instances does not last through the
fret. The boy born with q silver spoon in
his mouth frequently has to taste pewter
before his pilgrimage is over, and be may
! have the pleasure of being splashed with
mud from the carriage wheels of the mao
who was once his fathers porter. This is
free country, very free indeed, and
among the Consequences OF that freedom
is the exceeding uncertainty OF financial
matters. Yet in no country is less pro-
vision made for the evil day so far as our
children are concerned. The wealthy
parent brings up his sons and daughters
as though there were not the remotesJ pos
sibiiity that they could ever be poor. II
rich father should insist upon his boy
learning a trade he would be set down as
mild hammered lunatic. If arich mo.
Their should instil into her daughter rigid
ideas OF economy and industry, she would
be- looked upon as either very mean or
very foohsh-prohably both. Yet every
day we are taught the necessity of this
preliminary discipline; every day we see
men and women falling from aftiuence to
poverty, who, if properly trained, m, tsn,
not have fallen at al, OF, If they DID fall,
could have risen again. 1t is shame and
disgrace that, in a land where labor is
supposed to be honorable, and where the
law recognizes no distinction OF caste, 30
small O proportion of soDs of the weather
classes learn trades. No young man mas
right to consider himself thoroughly in
dependent unless he has come avocation
by which, health permitting, he can al
ways make a living. And the best and
surest avocations are those for which there
! is always q demand. Lawyers, doctors,
preachers, professors, clerks-all these and
their kindred are frequently drug in the
market but how seldom is it that good
carpenter, blacksmith, machinist, wagon
| maker, shoemaker, tinsmith, book binder,
or printer has to travel far in search of re,
muuerative employment! We shall not
be thoroughly republican until there are
fewer genteel drones in the national hive
There is probably no subject on which
more has been written than the above
Almost every body has seen evidences o
the fact about them and how many whe
will read this article (from the st. Loui
Republican, can realize it's truthfulness.