The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1886-05-12
ABOUT TRYING TO LIVE.
THE FOLLY OF TALKING ABOUT
HASTE TO GROW RICH.
The Great Difficulty of Obtaining Em-
ployment-Our HarShness to Those " In
Honestly Seek It--The Need of s"'
pathy-A Plea Tor Kindness.
special cnrrespondancs.l

NEW YORK, May 3-What endless homi-
lies are preached, what deal of rubbish is
written, in this country about the haste TO
grow rich! No doubt the great majority of
men here. and throughout civilization, in
deed, would he delighted to get rich, AMI
would use their utmost endeavor to that IN /
if they had the slightest prospect of becon-
ing 50. But they have no more exp citation
or thou ght Of acquiring wealth than t3ev
have of scaling the skies. Those who 9
aiming at large fortune, or have any def
mite object of the kind, are not one in hun
dred-perhaps not ono in thousand. TIL
great mass of peopl,, even in this new and
promising land, where every one ha,
chance. are absorbed in earning their daiIy
brea ! and are content when they earn i.
Any number of thes. are unable, through tenn
permanent, circumstances uninteliigenee or
misconduct, to keep on a financial level with
the world. They arc always slipping doHn,
and many of them never g;t fairly and square
" up They manage to live by shifts and
turns chiefly by credit so that they are
ac ullly supported by the community. al
though they would angrilv deny this. and re-
sent the most deliclt, offer OF aught like
charity. They never do well; but they always
tacJ SAldli. slltSsefbtllE lD-udY diIl
leaning on tomorrow
A host of persons subsis5 on what they
do not earn, and depend on the earnings of
their fellows without auy consciousness of
their dependence They who have any in
tent TO pay their debts are ant to consider
them as paid. for their anticipa;ions wholly
outTun performance But most of those who
habituaily incur debt become Indifferent to
Saffa se II
no scruples about increasing it to anv ex
tent. But both classes of debtors are likely
to die heavily in arrears, and death, ia such
cases, usually ends all obligation. So far is
wealth, o. any approach to it, b.
yord the multitude that facts and
figures wou unquestionably show that
the majority of men go out of
life not nonetari'y even with it No one
can get rich, save by manifest fraud. with
out settling his accounts The rich may be
sordid, rapacious, oppressive, unscrupulouS,
but they cannot escape ordinary indebted
ness; nor do they try TO- for they know thlt it
would be contrary to their interest. 1t is
impossible to build up a big fortune and hold
1t without establishing credit, and the first
step toward its establishment is liquidation
The poor, that is the very poor, are obliged
70 De IDtlcSL IuelE CIRCUMSTANCES are 50
desperate as to prevent credit, except of a
petty kind When they have no money they
are likely to suffer; their hands are ever
fighting the battle against starvation They
must not only depend on their labor, but on
their opportunity to labor; and it is this
which makes the deepest tragedy of exist
ence. 1t is constantly said, and generally
believed, that the man who Is willing to
r. .o1V., ~ :.
or more mischievous error can scarcely be
imagined. But the mass OF people
give it creGence in the face of in
applies for work, which Is tho best
work, he is generally turned away, and his
words regarded as an assumption The fact
that he is unemployed is construed against
him. If he were Industrious, sober, honest,
competent, it is reasoned he would not be
idle. Idleness is inferentialIy crime in the
minds of the community, as it is on the
statute books Men are sent to prison as
vagrants because they have no visible rnsanS
of support Frequently, perhaps generally.
it may be tlleif fault; but there must IL
many case, where it Is their misfortune
Think Of the inconsistency A man fries
hard to obtain employment. suffering in bod,
and in mind because he fails in his attempts
and then Is liable to punishment for his
failure. In other words, the law demands Of
him what is beyond his control. and, in all
dition TO all that he is obliged to endure from
refusal makes him pay penalty for which
the injustice Of his fellows is answered. ..
This is singularly like knocking man tIoan
without provoeation and kicking him fol
falling. have heard a great deal
of maa who would not work when
wages were Offered them. Bnt have never
seen such in any parts Of the world / have
visited car hardly doubS that some pro
fessional mendicants and tramps scorn labor
80 long as they can beg or steal; bat / ssl-
pact that they have been driven to this i'm
natural rendition, in the first place, bg
inability Q get work. Their applications
and entreaties were. probably, so long and
uniformly rejected that they grew Inoeos
and misantbropic Nothing win m Ike a men
more bitter and inhuman than the Continued
withholding from him of his right Is work
which IS equivalent TO N istng On his dirty