New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-04-07
Dead l[en's Shoes

Dead nen's Shoes
THERE is q great deal Of crysta allied
wisdom in the proverbs Of every ma
ton, the accumulat lions Of centuries Of
observation; but we think in few IS
there more to. be found than in the brief
saying that s. it is i'll waiting for dead
mem s shoes. $ 3 y.
How few feet do those shoes &c! How
few feet, after years Of waiting, get the
shoes, anyway! how few ever walk in
them with case after they do get them!
and in half of the cases, by the time
they get them, with how many is the
power of locomotion, to carry out the
parable, about lost! 5>
One is sometimes almost tempted to
ask who ever gained anything by the
expectation Of a legacy? The young
heir who awaits his fathers death, and
in the meantime discounts the event
with debts, would, it is to be presumed,
have been much better off by the time
of his fathers death had he known from
boyhood that that death was not to en-.
rich him by a penny. Every energy he
had would then have been put forward
to improve his affairs, to secure his fu-
ture and naturally to keep himself in
condition to enjoy that future, while
too often, in the other case, the. antici-
patton Of a plenty not earned has him:
dered the exercise Of any faculty of
earning till even the power to earn is
hampered, and the habit of debt has de-
moralized. OF course it is not impos-
sible that the heir in expectancy may
have cherished every virtue during the
period OF his waiting; may have run up
no Indebtedness; may haveretained and
used every faculty and power; may be
ready for the benefactiOn if it comes,
and can do without it if it does not; but
he is to be considered rather remarka-
BILE and an exceptional case, on the
whole, if he has done so, for the ten
dency of all the circumstances is not in
his favor. And what if at last the ex-s
pectant legatee is disappointed? Who
can describe the misery Of such a stu
alton, in the humiliation of hope, the
bitterness of shame, and the ruin of ev-
cry prospect?
But if it is of such doubtful benefit
to be waiting for these "pilgrim
shoon" when one is legitimately entitled
to expectation, what is it when one is
simply dependent upon the good graces
Of the devisor, and may have and may
not have the legacy which hope holds out
to him over a gulf of uncertainty! If
the hope is fattering, if the legacy is
really matter of Importance, what
1ifn 1nac c,1n1 1nol in thu
deavor to please; to set seal on the
bargain, as it were; to fasten, indeed,
an uncertain quantity into a fixed fact!
How slavish here, how obsequious
there, how false, it may be, elsewhere,
the person has to be! What humilia-
ton is felt to-day at receiving the treat
ment due to a lackey! what unwise
exaltation tomorrow at some warmer
expression of interest than usual! what
flat dependency when, after all, it is
seen that the expression of interest was
but a hollow form of good manners!
What degradation is there in all this to
the character! Would there be any
harder work for these walters to do.
than this waiting? Will the money
they hope to get be sufficient to salve
the sore of their hurt pride? And will
the joy of possession, the satisfaction Of
secured property, ever counterbalance
the shame of "toadyism, the mortif-
cation endured from purse-proud indif-
ference, and the wounds received with
out finching from the insolence of
wealth? For what do they want these
dead mems shoes, after all, but that
they may step out in them to the "con-
fusion of the neighbors,'' and the graft
tication OF every want? And will those
ends attained repay one for the con-
tempt of the neighbors who have seen
the straits of their humiliation in effect
ing the object, the seats below the salt
they have to take, the gowns whose
"joins'' they do not dare to hide with
trimmings lest the Generalin''- as in
the case of Ma chere Mere-pounce
upon the failing and dock the future
revenues? H. .....z, ~ tt.... :-.r.
1t is i'll waiting for dead mems shoes,
indeed. If the patient waiter is no
loser, to quote another proverb, yet
something else is gained thathad better
be dispensed with-some ignoble quail
ity, some sordid soil. Some bloom, too,
is rubbed from the spirit, if some weight
is added to the purse; one is less no.
BILE, even if one has never sacrificed
honor or proper pride and sef-respect,
or endured present humiliation for the
sake of future reward. all on account,
simply, of having waited. How much
nobler is any poverty than any wealth
SO aimed! How much nobler has the
nature grown, at any given period, that
has discarded thought or hope of such
gain, and has bent every endeavor to it's
own fit development, and has made use
of its own opportunities irrespective of
expectation or avaricious longing! how
much freer and finer is the gait at which
ones progress marches than can be
seen in those who walk the difficult way
trodden in the waiting for dead mems
shoes!- Harper Bazaar. .@5,st