The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-20
THE Wall OF THE HELPLESS.

That it is a false theory of life which
permits young men to be brought up
in idleness and without knowledge of
any means whereby they may earn for
themselves a living was pitifully illus
trated in some proceedings had in
New~ York court the other day.
The defendant in the case was the
son of millionaire who had been left
by his father a trust estate which
yielded him an annual income of $4,000.
The son, under the terms of his faith
er's will could not touch the corpus
of the estate, the trustees paying over
to him the annual income. Certain OF
his creditors wanted a part of this in
come diverted from the beneficiary and
applied to the payment of judgments
they held against him. The million
aires son objected.
II have been brought up in idleness."
he said, under the idea that I was to
inherit a large estate. I have never
acquired any business habits, so as to
fit me to acquire property or to make
me take care of it."
The young man was married and the
Sc 900 per year was not sufficient to
support his wife and himself in the
style to which their training had ac-
customed them. To deprive them of
any part of it would mean hardship
and suffering, he averred. and he
besought the court earnestly that the
petition of his creditors be overruled.
How foolish, in the light of such a
statement, is that fond policy which
induces parents to bring up their boys
in idleness, without knowledge of bust
ness or professionals make of them
drones in the hive of human progress,
alike useless to themselves and I'M
profitable to the world! In this case
the riches upon which the young man
banked his hopes of future idle happi-
ness followed the old, old custom and
took unto themselves wings" 1t is
reasonably certain that the like expec-
tations of thousands of other young
men in this county will be blasted be-
fore they come into their expected
heritage. He with the brightest hopes
may yet have to work for a living, and
the father who mingles with his love a
| grain of the common sense which help
ed him gain his own fortune will see
to it that his son. in the event he ever
has to enter the fray, is mailed in the
armor of full preparation.
What a blow it would have been to
the pride of the father of the young
man in New York, had he been alive
to hear his son declare he was so pitt
| fully helpless in a world of men, that
he was willing to assign his own weak
ness as a reason for the non-payment
of his debts and to keep from his cred
itors the money he could not earn for
himself!
And in almost an equal degree the
same thing is true of many young wo-
men. Even though their parents are
comparatively poor in this worlds
goods, they are nurtured in an at
mosphere of false daintiness, totally
out of harmony with their condition
and their prospects in life. When they
marry they become weights that
drag their husbands downward, instead
of helpmeets; they keep their husbands
with their feet planted on the bottom
round of the ladder. instead of aiding
them in rising to the top. When they
awake to the knowledge of their own
helplessness, If their artificial training
has left them ray of perception, they
blame their parents-and they are
right