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will be fortunate for him if there is no mistake, and if no hard times or pressure in the money market compel him to stop payment and compromise with his creditors for fifty cents on a dollar, and all before he has arrived at the age of legal majority.

We begin early, and so become early accustomed to the reverses of business. In England it is difficult to recover from a single failure. Here men fail several times in the course of their lives, and come out oftentimes with a competency, if not wealth, at last. We are not, as in Europe, confined to the particular pursuit in which we were bred, and unable, if we fail in that, to turn our hands to something else. If one ladder fails us, we step at once upon another, and still keep climbing up. Our motto is, "never to say die." If we fail in one thing we try another, and so on until we find something we can do, or, in the more transcendental language of the day, until we find our "mission." Thus the clerk in the grocery or dry goods establishment finds himself oftentimes engaging in half a dozen different kinds of business before he is thirty years old. As a people, we are remarkable for versatility of genius, far beyond what is known in the land of our origin and other European nations. The Englishman can do one thing well and nothing else, whether it is to make the head or sharpen the point of a pin. The American turns his hands to almost anything,—in

vents new machines for saving labor, learns a trade in three months, deserts it, becomes a merchant, sends ships to India and Australia, or turns manufacturer and builds factories and machine shops. Failing in trade, he studies law, medicine or divinity, fortunate if he learns at last the design of that Providence which called him into existence, and

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THE NEWS BOY.

THE News Boy is the youngest of our merchants. He trades on a small capital, which, according to the most approved method, he turns over often. A single day suffices to dispose of his whole stock in trade. A quick ninepence he deems better than a slow shilling. He knows none of the evils of the credit system, for his transactions are all on the cash principle. He carries his goods under his arm, and does his own advertising by word of mouth. He pays no one for puffing his wares. He is troubled with no rents to pay, and keeps his own accounts. "Here's the extra Herald, all about the Dalton divorce case;" "Here's the Daily Times, all about the riot in New York;" "Here's the Bee, Weekly Despatch and Evening Gazette;" "Here's the Journal, last edition, all about the murder last night." The news boy deals in murders, suicides, great fires, railroad accidents, steamboat explosions, and horrible catastrophes generally. He thrives on the misfortunes of others. It is an ill wind, he thinks, that blows no good to any one. A riot or a terrible accident is a god-send to him. He

lives on the morbid love of excitement, and a relish. too common in the community for all the details of misfortune and human suffering.

We have heard of the old lady who sent for the physician to know what was the matter with her. On inquiry for her symptoms, she informed him that she thought something must be wrong with her, and one reason was, that she could not enjoy her murders as well as she had done.

"As Rochefoucault his maxims drew

From nature, we suppose them true."

He informs us that there is always something in the misfortunes of our best friends that does not displease us. It is on this unworthy sentiment and a prurient curiosity to read the details of vice and crime that the news boy relies mainly for his support. Himself the child of poverty, misery and crime, his first lesson in the world is to trade in the misfortunes and crimes of others. A fresh murder brings money to his purse. He delights in "extras," for they contain something not known before. Unable to read himself, he quickly learns from others the dreadful news they contain, and with jubilant voice trumpets his paper at every corner. The shrill note of earliest childhood, all unconscious of its dreadful tidings, is the messenger from which we learn that a whole shipload of human beings have sunk in a moment into the sea, and hundreds of hearts are made desolate forever.

We naturally inquire what is to be the result of such an education on these children of want and misery, driven into the streets to earn a few coppers that may save a mother or sister from starving, or it may be to supply the father and mother both with the means of daily intoxication. Dealing in murders and the details of vice before they know the meaning of one or the other, surrounded by vicious companions and every corrupting influence, what must be the result of these early impressions? To deal with poverty and vice is, of all things, the most difficult. They belong necessarily and inherently to every large city, and the more populous, wealthy, refined and luxurious it becomes, the greater is the number of its criminals and its paupers, and the more difficult becomes the great problem of poverty and vice. A great city has been termed a great sore. This is true, as it is also true that extremes of wealth and poverty must always be found together. Our experience in this country gives us as yet no conception of the wretchedness, filth and crime of a large portion of the population of London, the great centre of wealth, refinement and luxury. It is a singular fact, that the highest state of human cultivation must be accompanied with the lowest forms of degradation. Yet such is the great law, and we have no reason to believe that this law will ever be abrogated or repealed.

We must meet the evils of poverty and vice as they

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