The Irish standard., 1905-12-09
FOOD FOR THOUGHT.

The following editorial from the
Western Waterman, contains much
food for thought. The failure of rich
young men to accomplish anything in
the world is overshadowed by the fur
ther fact that in most cases they go
to an early grave as the result of fast
living. There is considerable mystery
surrounding the death of the late
Marshall Field, Jr., and the reference
to him may be an error.
The only son Of Marshall Field died
of self-intlicted wound last Monday.
One of the Mackey boys was killed a
short time ago in an automobile acct
found dead out West. One of Eu-
gene Kelly's sons lost his life few
ing stream. The two sons Of Pull
man are dead or in sanitarium. We
could run up the list to hundreds. In
this city all the young men Of the old
families died young, and most of them
by violent deaths. The rich brewers
of this city have only girls to leave
their vast fortunes to. The sons on
whom they depended to inherit and
carry on the business are all dead, and
in nearly every case by anticipating the
stroke of the fell destroyer. The ends
of these young men are mostly shroud-
ed in suspicious mystery.
Why are the young scions of our
rich families, going so fast to the
grave and the devil? The answer is
very simple; they are not brought up
right. They are taught no moral re-
straint They have no religion. If
they ever had, it was driven out of
them by the example of their parents
and of early immoral companions. Rich
fathers and mothers will mix with the
Four Hundred, and their children must
go with the children Of the Four Hun
dred, even should that mean to go to
perdition. That is the simple explana-
| ton in a nutshell.
| Rich young men need religion and
it's restraining influence more than poor
young men. They have more and
stronger temptations, and the conse-
quences of youthful wrong-doing are
not SO disastrous for them Moral
lapses they need not care about, as
gilded youth is supposed to be above
the ordinary laws Of morality. But
if religion is powerless to assert it's
claims nature will have her revenge.
The young men who have brought sor-
row and shame to the homes Of the
multi millionaires of the land in the
past quarter of century have been
physical as we'll as moral wrecks; and
it was because they were physical
wrecks that they came to their I'M
timely ends. 1t is terrible to behold
these young men in the thirties show
ing all the signs Of debauched senility;
stomachs gone; kidneys gone; hearts
gone. and trembling on the verge of
drunkards' graves. They were not al
ways so. They inherited strong con-
situations from their frugal fathers
and mothers. But they joined the club
and had night key to their rooms.
They had plenty of money to purchase
forbidden pleasure, and none to say to
them, nay; they contracted extrava-
CANT and destructive habits, and in the
hey-da Of young manhood they be-
came rakes.
Rich fathers and mothers in this
country should learn from their broth
ers and sisters across the water. There
are no children so carefully brought up
or more closely watched than the sons
of the European nobility. They do not
always turn out well, but certainly they
are not all profigates. Very many of
the best men in every walk Of life in
Europe are sons Of the nobility. With
US there is scarcely half dozen men
| VI oAy AOlO1duA0 P1OIuAiA0ASS III 81
ciety or business whose fathers were
even wealthy. 1t is become an aphor-
ism among thinking men that to leave
a young man fortune is surely to
consign him to an early and dishonor-
able grave.
AS we are most interested in the
fate Of our rich Catholic boys, we
would ask what becomes Of the prom
Using crop Of young men. sons of our
best Catholic families, whom our Cath
Ollie Colleges turn out every year? You
hear from them for a while and then
they disappear, as If the earth swal-
lowed them up; and you never hear
from them again, until the papers are
called on some fine morning to ex-
plain away q suspicious case Of sui
eide or a death surrounded by shame
full circumstances. These Catholic
young men began their downward ca
reer by neglecting Mass and the sacra-
ments. A hopeful and indulgent faith
er or mother sees no danger in this