The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1878-06-14
YOUNG MEN TO WHOM LIFE CONES EASY


YOUNG MEN TO WHOM LIFE CONES EASY.
The conclusion OF the Dimmitt trial at
Batavia is something which American IA
theirs and mothers would do we'll not to dis
miss from their thoughts in hurry. The
young man whom jury has just pronoun-
ced guilty of the crime Of robbipg the
County Treasurer of $24 700, belonged tod
an. old and honorahlAs fapilg Hs~was Of
purely American ancestry for several gencr-
| ations, and belonged to that class Of young
men who have white hands and wear fash
onable clothes, and who are rather apt to
look down upon brown -fsted farm boys,
| and youths who delve at the sturdy mechan-
ical trades. To their minds gentleman is
aIman who smokes very expensive cigars,
wears fine clothes, drives fast horse and
never works any. 1t is their pride to be a
little "fast," perhaps, to laugh to scorn old
fashioned slow ways of getting money, and
| old fashioned notions of honorable dealing.
They have no reverence for church or State,
| or any of the things their ancestors vcnera-
| ted. They are older men at twenty than
| their fathers were at ffty-so DID, indeed,
they have found out that patriotism is dead,
religion a thing for old women, and enthu-
siasm sign of lunacy.
Life has come easy to these American
young nssss, WhatcVor they wanted hns
been supplied to them from the time they
were born, without any exertion on their
part Their ancestors were the strong pio-
ncer farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, and
occasionally even tailors and cobblers of
this country. These ancestors may not in
all cases have boen able to read and write,
and possibly some CT them may have gone
baretooted all summer, except when they
went to church, but they were mon who
had habit of working Physically, men
tally, and morally, they were giants COM
pared with their degenerate descendants of
to-day, the young men to whom everything
has come easy. They toiled early and late,
gathered together gold and lands in rain
and sunshine, and left to their descendants
at once the legacy and the curse Of nothing
to do.
This new generation of American young
men has no proper development of brain or
muscle. They have not had the healthy
steady exercise which develop either. Ii
would be easier for them to steal thnn to
work steadily at anything. There are
American men who wore shoulderstraps in
the late war that are now tramps and va
grants. They will not work. Ia is more
their parents fault than their own that they
are incapable OF steady exertion. Their
parents themselves sometimes share the son s
contempt for farm or mechanical labor. The
young man sometimes, perhaps, plays at
) studying profession, and becomes weak
ling lawyer or doctor in country where
| Drn frn |, O.
times as many doctors as there ought to be
But whether the youth studies profession
or not, still the misguided parents keep up
the supply Of money, bent on running their
son in spite of fate. Everything must
:, come easy, therefore what wonder if at last
he steals it, when all other sources are cx-
haustcd? He is as incapblc of working for
it as a South Sea Islander would be-
1t is painful to note of late years how
many criminals come from honorable old
American families tits because they have
been brought up to be "abovc" hard work
Meantime sturdy foreigners who know the
worth of home in this free country, quiet
ly take possession of the plow, the spade
and the hammer. They dig and dclvc as
the pioneer ancestors diggcd and delved.-
Their strong lmbcd boys and girls are put
to the common schools till they are old
= enough to work, when they, too, must earn
their own living and help earn that of Others
From the rank of these children of foreign
born citizens will come the men of power
who are to rule this country in the next
generation. The sccptre is gliding into the
; hands of men whose parents brought them
up to work. 1t must be poor comfort to
those who are losing this balance of power
to look around them and observe how large
: a number Of the fashionable cmbezzlers
forgers, defaulters, absconding debtors and
treasury robbers, are the sons of old Amer
can families, not seldom the descendants Of
those who he ped to found this Government.
The only remedy is to put the "high.toned"
young Amarican upon farm or in a shop,
and work off his weakness, lazness and
wickcdness.- Cincinnati Commercial