Year: 1869




to the merchants Of Boston, q year or two
ago, Me-: McCullOch said that the thing most
needed 10 the prescott condition of the couur
try was, that this whole population should
return to work. A great many journals
took 1t 90 themselves al the time to ridicule
this statement OF the Secretary. They refer.
red to the traditional activity of the Aueri-
can mind, to the hot haste to be rich, and
to the signs Of Industry on every hand and
concluded that there was no fault here that
lack of industry could not be psedicated as
among the cSuses OF existing evils And
yet Mr.. McCulloch was every way right.
Among the worst features Of the times is a
disinclInation, among large classes, to honest,
hard work a preference Of easy of partial
emplOymeuts, which barely afford subsistence,
without promising promotion or advance.
ment; lowering of that industrial aud
social ambition which is the spring of all
bene6cent activity and reliance on specuIa-
ton, on short cuts, on sharp practice, on
luck, on anything, to attain the ends which
once were sought BY frugaliIy and patient toll.


There is not one OF our readers to whose
daily observation this does not appeal. Was
there ever tine when young men we're so
ready to take up with positions which secure
living after certain fashion, but which
look forward to nothing aud condemn their
occupants to hopeless mediocrity through
life! Was there ever time when employ
fneDts not strictly reputable, though perhaps
not criminal, we're 50 crowded Or, to rise
step higher, when the whole class of em
ployments, which are reputable enough, but
not useful or beneficial, were so much sought
after Are there not other classes of em.
plOyments, both useful aud honorable when
in proper proportion to the wants of the com>
munity, which are filled to positive repletiou
aud disgust because they afford an escape
from pains taking aud self denying labor


Every possible opening connected with
trade, which dispenses with thorough train
ing aud long preparation, attracts a swarm of
young men not one Of whom but. could do
better-take ten oL twenty years together
than to accept it, yet all but one of whom
will be disappointed and driven off to some
thing still poorer, or to wait for another
chance. The number of expectants, that
most melancholy class, was never so large as
now The very excess of applicants on
every hand cheapens their price and so creates
new positions ofau increasingly lower order.
The pressure for appointments to Washington
clerkships is an example of this. For every
place there are a score of eager contestants
Yet those positions have no outlook what
ever, afford no reasonable opportunity for
promotion or for social improvement, and
yield precariOus aud at the best an insult,
cent livelihood. A more miserable lot could
hardly be invoked upon an enemy.


To earn very poor living by a very little
work now seems to content class in our
country which is every year growing larger.
Agencies OF every sort are being multiplied
far beyond the legitimate wants of bu.iness.
The increase in the number of clerks makes
up only in part for the poorer quality. The
swarms of hangers. on at establishments of
every kind perfectly astonish us as we travel
from town to town, or state to state. Hotels
stables, saloons, are served more numerous
ly and less satisfactorily every day. The
wants of this class are very small. Thew
must eat aud they must drink but they
make no demands for family, for a secured
support, or even for social 6ecencies. They
have no income and need none. They as
pire to nothing: are 10 the way of nothing,
and only ask a mere animal subsistence
Being Yankees, they are not afraid of hard.
ship-thank heaven, that cannot be bred out
In generation, ,--nOr even Of sweating or
straining, provided it does not take the form
OF regular steady work No matter what the
call from the farm or the shop, it is never
heard by these men. They would rather
hang round their accustomed haunts, and
do just euough to get long from day to day.


How strongly do The young men who enl
ter stores, the present day, remind one of
the same class fifty or twenty FIVE years ago |?
What part of them set out with the determi
nation to raise through all the grades, will
iHg to begin low, if only they 6ud a chance
to climb high, carefully economizing their
earning in order to be able to command
something better when the tune comes 4? We
Intend no dlsrespect to the class, as q whole
but we mean that there is in it great and
increasing number of those who settle down
content with an easy berth, instead of plan
ming and saving and working for an advance
10 start win, they give up all idea of mar>
rying, which is the only guaranty society
has-with very few and marked exceptions
that man means to be anybody. That
condition accepted, they can easily make an
account of what thoy will require to dress
daintily, fare so, and be seen at places of
amusement and fashion. Give them this
aud their life is complete; no tOiling, no
sparing, no climbing for them


This miserable tendency to take up with
any position which escapes hard and coutin-
uous labor is getting to be a melancholy
feature of American life. The generation
gone had its dissipated and idle ami vagrant
aid pauper classes but all who did not be-
long distinctively to one of them, we're EN-.
phatically meD Ofwork, of patience, enterprise
aud ambition. They took in the whole of
life They forebore and sacrificed and un