New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-04-29
Is IT RORTH LII

There Is one peCullaf tlalJ III our hHcilC@h
life which has escaped foreign critics; it is that
while each man of us has set before him unlim-
tied chances of success, and opportunity OF de-
velopment such as nc other country ever gave,
we have, of all peoples on the earth, the most
dscontented, unsatislied ungratlfied faces
Go down Broadway this April morning and yon
will find it crowded with men and women who
oddly remind you of unfinished portraits.
They are all old or middle-aged, the look of
hone and expectancy which belongs to the
Young has faded out; they are usually lean,
faded tired hut even those who are portly'
well-to- do and stamped with success give you
the impression that in some direction or other
they did not reach their full growth, and never
will. The middle-aged English or frenchman
looks rs if he had run the full length oil his
mental tethcr there he il, politician, bagman,
laborcr, man of letters. He has nude all he
could Of himself and he wants to make no
more. lie jokes and laughs, or gormandzes
and swills his beer contentedly. But who ever
saw n middle.nged American who looked con-
tented 7 He is eager restless, reaching Tor
ward. or he is utterly worn out but In either
case there Is a latent sadness III his face, the
remembrance OF something which he might
have been and never was.
This is partly due to the very abundance
and medley OF the chances set before each man.
The grocer in England was born to career
among -four and figs. The clergyman was des-
tined TO the Church from his cradle. But the
American grocer was at school with lad who
ia NOW n member of the Cabinet. His brother
is n iudee In Iowa. He reads with JUNCTION and
IL. IN tho Ila ulaO h1g
immortal longings in him. He might have been
an author or a journalist IL it had not been Tor
his wife and boys The clergyman here was a
photographer, farmland, teacher, con-
ductor on a railway, before he could earn his
theologic training. He loves joke, he rellSles
a nine. there are times when he thinks he shall
90 mad if he cannot get gun In his hands ana
90 duck shooting. These arc not the flesh aud
the devil Juggling ut his soul. but the tastes and
IDEAS developed by his early occupations. In
short, there are so many roads open TO the
American that whichever he takes he wishes he
han taken another. But the chief reason for
the craving, unsatsiied look upon the faces OF
middle-aged people in our cities is that the de-
mauds of fashionable life of every grade upon
Them for outlay are so heavy that they can do
nothing more than make money and spend 1t.
VIVA, time have they to read tho books in
which they rejoiced thirty years ago. or to hear
music or 10 cultivate their skill in painting, or
to 90 fishing Are not the boys to start in bust
ness andIthe girls to dress and marry, and with
full pockets, too, for American young men
have their wits about them as to dover nova
daysq a house in a fashionable quarter,
costly furniture and clothes, brio -a-brac,
servants, carriages, dinners, summer journeys
has not the gray haired old man, whatever his
station. all these things to evolve out of him
self He is like the mill out of which the Troll
in the fairy story ground tables and chairs and
meat and bags upon bags of gold, every day
tbo wear round The Trolls name now is
Society; and how many mills he grinds! A
voung fellow is an author or in artist he has a
spark of the divine fire in him which flames
high. Whereat We all rejoice. Now we shall
have mt last one to whom we can look up. stand
ing apart above us. talking with Shakespeare
and Raphael And behold in year or two
he too is a mill, writing verses to fill up col
umn and painting pOt-boiers for the auction
sales. Wit and genius and song are worth in
tho marketju the clothes and tables and chairs
they will bring.
Is there no revolt possible to these middle
aged people, Can they net strike for week,
a summer, year, Can they not shuttle of
this whole mortal coil of outward belongings
and give the men within them one free full
breath before they DIET Suppose, for example,
half dozen families Of education and pure
high tastes should leave New-York and camp
down in the southern mountains or OH the shores
of the lakes in the primitive paradsaical re'
gions where beef and butter are to he bought
for ten cents pound Let them leave fine
clothes, carpets. pictures. decoration and show
of every sort behind, and with them the ncces'
sity of work to cam them, and take only Al
their companions books, friends and the
eternal satisfying completeness of Nature
Imagine colony in which each man had not 9