employ clerks or apprentices, which is not discharged when their
quarterly payments are made. A man is in some sense the father of the
young men whom he employs, and he should do them fatherly service. It is
not possible to enter into relations with any human being without at the
same time incurring responsibility concerning him. How much might be
done for young men, if merchants would feel a domestic as well as a
mercantile interest in them! It may not be advisable to renew the old
custom of making clerks and apprentices members of the family; but
surely the pleasantly lighted parlor, with its pictures, its piano, its
little sheltered window-nooks, its agreeable daughters, its matronly and
dignified mother, may be made a Mecca for the homesick young pilgrim,
without any sacrifice that shall seem too great to the followers of Him
who laid down the glory which He had with the Father before the world
was, for nothing but that He might save sinners. Is it a dangerous thing
to introduce strangers into a young family? But is the character that is
not good enough for the drawing-room quite safe and harmless in the
counting-room? If merchants, master mechanics, and employers generally,
would set a premium upon integrity and good manners, those qualities
would not long be found wanting. Incalculable is the influence which
these civilizing surroundings would have upon a susceptible boy. Only
let them come in early. Do not wait till sin has thrown out its more
brilliant and showy lures, and then attempt to tear him away from them
already half polluted; but while his soul is yet unstained, while,
lonely, inexperienced, self-distrustful, he is ready to be moulded by
the first skilful touch, let it come from the wise hands of honorable
and responsible men whose position gives weight to their opinions, from
the gentle hands of motherly women, and merry, guileless girls.
Provide,--even if it be at the cost of a little pains, a little
sacrifice of the quiet and seclusion of home,--provide for his youth its
fitting and innocent delights, that sinful pleasures may not seize him
and hold him in their destructive clutch. The good which the merchant
does to his clerks will redound to the good of his own children. There
is probably as much intelligence and virtue and youthful promise among
his clerks as among his sons and daughters; and what the former receive
of home the latter receive in variety and relish. The influence of man
upon woman, also, is just as healthful as that of woman upon man; for
both are in the order of Nature. The brothers and sisters will dance to
their mother's playing all the more gleefully for a stranger or two in
the set; and Mary will enter with fresher zest into the game of cards,
because Mr. Gordon is her partner instead of that provoking Harry. And
it is not whist nor dancing that harms young people. It is outlawry.
Whist does not lead to gambling. Dancing does not lead to dissipation.
It is playing cards "on the sly" that leads to gambling. It is having
to get out of the way of ministers, and church-members, and all
religious people, when dancing is to be done, that leads to dissipation.
It is loneliness, want of interest and amusement, any unjust and
unnatural restriction, that leads to all manner of wild and boisterous
and vicious amusements, which prey upon the soul. If to a young man, on
his first coming to the city, there open only so many as two or three
houses, where he can now and then find welcome admittance,--where are
two or three excellent women who exercise a gentle jurisdiction over
him, who will notice if his eye be heavy or his cheek pale, who will
administer, upon occasion, a little sweet motherly chiding, mend a rent
in his gloves, advise in the choice of a neck-tie, and call upon him
occasionally for trifling service or attendance,--where he can find a
few hot-headed, perhaps; but well-fathered and well-mothered boys, who
have the same headstrong will, the same fierce likes and dislikes, the
same temptations and weaknesses as himself, but who are saved from
disaster by gentle, but firm authority, and constant, yet scarcely
perceptible influence,--a few bright girls, who will sing and dance and
talk with him, and pique and tease and tantalize him,--how infinitely
are the chances multiplied against his ever turning aside into the
debasing saloon! He naturally likes purity better than impurity. The
breath of innocence is sweeter than the fumes of poisoned wine. The
interests of a man at whose table he sits, whose children are his
companions, whose wife is his friend and confidant, will be far nearer
to him than those of one whom he rarely sees and little knows. Something
of the atmosphere of home will cling to office-walls, and soften the
sharp outlines and sweeten the unfragrant air of perpetual traffic and
self-seeking. The society of pure and sprightly girls will be a constant
inducement to keep himself sprightly and pure. Reading, studying,
riding, singing, driving, boating, with well-bred and high-hearted young
friends, will give plentiful outlet to his animal spirits, plentiful
gratification to his social wants, plentiful food for his mental hunger;
and while he is thus enjoying the pleasures which are but the lawful
dues of his spring-time, he will be all the while becoming more and more
worthy of love and respect, more and more fitted to bear, in his turn,
the burdens of Church and State. And if, in spite of it all, his feet
are still swift to do evil, it will be a satisfaction to those who have
thus striven for his welfare to know that his blood is not on them nor
on their children.
There are other things to be taken into account. The leisure of Saturday
afternoon must, it would seem, conduce greatly to quiet Sundays. When
young men are confined six long days behind the counter, it is but
natural that on the seventh they should give themselves to merry-making.
For, let it be remembered, sport is natural, yes, and as necessary, to
youth as worship; and in order of human development, it comes first. It
is very hard to say to a boy, "You have been writing, and weighing, and
measuring all the week. Now the sun is shining, the birds are singing,
the flowers blooming, the river sparkling, and boat and horse await your
hand, but you must turn away from them all and go to church. You have
been boxed up for six days, and now you must be boxed up again. There
are no fresh airs, no summer sounds for you; but only noise and dust and
pavements all the days of your life." It happens, at any rate, that
there is no use in saying this; for young blood overleaps it all, and
city suburbs resound on Sunday with the clatter of hoofs and the rattle
of wheels; and no one need be surprised, who has any acquaintance with
human nature one the one side, or any conception of the irksomeness of
continued confinement on the other. It would, indeed, be a very strange,
and, I think, a very sad thing, if young people _were_ willing to let
suns rise, and stars set, and all the beautiful changes of Nature go on,
without an irresistible, instinctive prompting to fly from the grave
monotone of the city, and live and breathe in her freshness and her
song. If a young man must choose between play of muscle, swiftness of
motion, the free air of the hills, and sitting in church to hear a
sermon, he will often choose the former; and if he cannot enjoy these
things without going in opposition to the best sense of the community,
if they cannot be compassed without a certain consciousness of
wrong-doing, they will lead to recklessness and lawlessness; for be
compassed, they will.
But let the young men have Saturday afternoon for their boating and
bowling and various pastimes, and they will be far more disposed to hear
what the minister has to say on Sunday,--far more disposed, let us hope,
to join in prayer and praise. One very obvious and practical
consideration is, that many of them, probably the larger part, can spend
on a single holiday all the holiday money they have to spend. So--there
will be nothing for it but to stay at home on Sunday by force of the
_res angustae domi_. But, also, is it too much to believe, that, the
half-day having given them that physical exercise, amusement, and change
which they need, Sunday will find them the more ready to absorb and
appropriate spiritual nourishment? that bodily and mental recreation
will prepare them for religious recreation? I have said that sport is as
natural and necessary as worship. But, on the other hand, worship is as
natural as sport, Very few, I think, are the persons, young or old, in
all of whose thoughts it may be said God is not. And if this natural,
spontaneous turning to God were not interfered with by our pernicious
modes of training and management, we should not become so fearfully
alienated from Him. Play and work and worship would be animated by one
spirit. Many surely there are who would be _more likely_ to devote a
part of their Sunday to the direct worship of God, and to a more
intimate knowledge of His works and words, who would be more likely to
come under the influence of the Bible and the pulpit, from having had
opportunity first to free their lungs from the foul air, and their limbs
from the lifelessness, which a long confinement to business had caused.
At least let us not tempt any to make Sunday a day of fun and frolic, by
giving them no other day for their fun and frolic. Provide things honest
in the sight of all men.
Women can do much towards bringing about this holiday, and towards
keeping it intact when it is once secured. Let every woman make a point
of doing no shopping on Saturday afternoons. A very little forethought
will prevent any inconvenience from the deprivation. If a tradesman
chooses to keep his shop open on Saturdays, when others of the same kind
are shut, let every woman take care not only not to enter it on that
day, but on any day. And in order that the holiday may begin as promptly
as the working-day, women should not put off their purchases till the
last minute before closing. If the shops are to be shut at two o'clock,
let no one enter them after one, except in case of emergency. If the
clerks have to take down goods from their shelves, overhaul box and
drawer, and unroll and unfold and derange till the time for closing
arrives, an hour or an hour and a half of their holiday must be consumed
in the work of putting the store in order. Let this last hour of the
working-week be spent in arrangement, not in derangement. Be ashamed to
ask a clerk to disturb a shelf which he has just set in Sunday order.
Let the young men be ready, so that, when the clock strikes the hour of
release, release may come.
Many of the shops are advertised to be closed on Saturday afternoons
through the summer. But there are just as many hours to the day and just
as many days to the week in winter as in summer; and the ice and snow
and sleigh-bells of January are just as fascinating and as exhilarating
and invigorating as the rivers and roses of June. Therefore it is to be
hoped the half-holiday will not migrate with the birds, but remain and
become a permanent national institution.
THE CHIMNEY-CORNER FOR 1866.
BEING A FAMILY-TALK ON RECONSTRUCTION.
Our Chimney-Corner, of which we have spoken somewhat, has, besides the
wonted domestic circle, its _habitues_ who have a frequent seat there.
Among these, none is more welcome than Theophilus Thoro.
Friend Theophilus was born on the shady side of Nature, and endowed by
his patron saint with every grace and gift which can make a human
creature worthy and available, except the gift of seeing the bright side
of things. His bead-roll of Christian virtues includes all the graces of
the spirit except hope; and so, if one wants to know exactly the flaw,
the defect, the doubtful side, and to take into account all the untoward
possibilities of any person, place, or thing, he had best apply to
friend Theophilus. He can tell you just where and how the best-laid
scheme is likely to fail, just the screw that will fall loose in the
smoothest-working machinery, just the flaw in the most perfect
character, just the defect in the best-written book, just the variety of
thorn that must accompany each particular species of rose.
Yet Theophilus is without guile or malice. His want of faith in human
nature is not bitter and censorious, but melting and pitiful. "We are
all poor trash, miserable dogs together," he seems to say, as he looks
out on the world and its ways. There is not much to be expected of or
for any of us; but let us love one another, and be patient.
Accordingly, Theophilus is one of the most incessant workers for human
good, and perseveringly busy in every scheme of benevolent enterprise,
in all which he labors with melancholy steadiness without hope. In
religion he has the soul of a martyr,--nothing would suit him better
than to be burned alive for his faith; but his belief in the success of
Christianity is about on a par with that of the melancholy disciple of
old, who, when Christ would go to Judaea, could only say, "Let us also
go, that we may die with him." Theophilus is always ready to die for the
truth and the right, for which he never sees anything but defeat and
destruction ahead.
During the late war, Theophilus has been a despairing patriot, dying
daily, and giving up all for lost in every reverse from Bull Run to
Fredericksburg. The surrender of Richmond and the capitulation of Lee
shortened his visage somewhat; but the murder of the President soon
brought it back to its old length. It is true, that, while Lincoln
lived, he was in a perpetual state of dissent from all his measures. He
had broken his heart for years over the miseries of the slaves, but he
shuddered at the Emancipation Proclamation; a whirlwind of anarchy was
about to sweep over the country, in which the black and the white would
dash against each other and be shivered like potters' vessels. He was in
despair at the accession of Johnson,--believing the worst of the
unfavorable reports that clouded his reputation. Nevertheless he was
among the first of loyal citizens to rally to the support of the new
administration, because, though he had no hope in that, he could see
nothing better.
You must not infer from all this that friend Theophilus is a social wet
blanket, a goblin shadow at the domestic hearth. By no means. Nature has
gifted him with that vein of humor and that impulse to friendly
joviality which are frequent developments in sad-natured men, and often
deceive superficial observers as to their real character. He who laughs
well and makes you laugh is often called a man of cheerful disposition;
yet in many cases nothing can be farther from it than precisely this
kind of person.
Theophilus frequents our chimney-corner, perhaps because Mrs. Crowfield
and myself are, so to speak, children of the light and the day. My wife
has precisely the opposite talent to that of our friend. She can
discover the good point, the sound spot, where others see only defect
and corruption. I myself am somewhat sanguine, and prone rather to
expect good than evil, and with a vast stock of faith in the excellent
things that may turn up in the future. The Millennium is one of the
prime articles of my creed; and all the ups and downs of society I
regard only as so many jolts on a very rough road that is taking the
world on, through many upsets and disasters, to that final consummation.
Theophilus holds the same belief, theoretically; but it is apt to sink
so far out of sight in the mire of present disaster as to be of very
little comfort to him.
"Yes," he said, "we are going to ruin, in my view, about as fast as we
can go. Miss Jennie, I will trouble you for another small lump of sugar
in my tea."
"You have been saying that, about our going to ruin, every time you have
taken tea here for four years past," said Jennie; "but I always noticed
that your fears never spoiled your relish either for tea or muffins.
People talk about being on the brink of a volcano, and the country going
to destruction, and all that, just as they put pepper on their potatoes:
it is an agreeable stimulant in conversation,--that's all."
"For my part," said my wife, "I can speak in another vein. When had we
ever in all our history so _bright_ prospects, so much to be thankful
for? Slavery is abolished; the last stain of disgrace is wiped from our
national honor. We stand now before the world self-consistent with our
principles. We have come out of one of the severest struggles that ever
tried a nation, purer and stronger in morals and religion, as well as
more prosperous in material things."
"My dear Madam, excuse me," said Theophilus; "but I cannot help being
reminded of what an English reviewer once said,--that a lady's facts
have as much poetry in them as Tom Moore's lyrics. Of course poetry is
always agreeable, even though of no statistical value."
"I see no poetry in my facts," said Mrs. Crowfield. "Is not slavery
forever abolished, by the confession of its best friends,--even of those
who declare its abolition a misfortune, and themselves ruined in
consequence?"
"I confess, my dear Madam, that we have succeeded as we human creatures
commonly do, in supposing that we have destroyed an evil, when we have
only changed its name. We have contrived to withdraw from the slave just
that fiction of property relation which made it for the interest of some
one to care for him a little, however imperfectly; and having destroyed
that, we turn him out defenceless to shift for himself in a community
every member of which is embittered against him. The whole South
resounds with the outcries of slaves suffering the vindictive wrath of
former masters; laws are being passed hunting them out of this State and
out of that; the animosity of race--at all times the most bitter and
unreasonable of animosities--is being aroused all over the land. And the
Free States take the lead in injustice to them. Witness the late vote of
Connecticut on the suffrage question. The efforts of Government to
protect the rights of these poor defenceless creatures are about as
energetic as such efforts always have been and always will be while
human nature remains what it is. For a while the obvious rights of the
weaker party will be confessed, with some show of consideration, in
public speeches; they will be paraded by philanthropic sentimentalists,
to give point to their eloquence; they will be here and there sustained
in Governmental measures, when there is no strong temptation to the
contrary, and nothing better to be done; but the moment that political
combinations begin to be formed, all the rights and interests of this
helpless people will be bandied about, as so many makeweights in the
political scale. Any troublesome lion will have a negro thrown to him
to keep him quiet. All their hopes will be dashed to the ground by the
imperious Southern white, no longer feeling for them even the interest
of a master, and regarding them with a mixture of hatred and loathing as
the cause of all his reverses. Then, if, driven to despair, they seek to
defend themselves by force, they will be crushed by the power of the
Government, and ground to powder, as the weak have always been under the
heel of the strong.
"So much for our abolition of slavery. As to our material prosperity, it
consists of an inflated paper currency, an immense debt, a giddy,
fool-hardy spirit of speculation and stock-gambling, and a perfect furor
of extravagance, which is driving everybody to live beyond his means,
and casting contempt on the republican virtues of simplicity and
economy.
"As to advancement in morals, there never was so much intemperance in
our people before, and the papers are full of accounts of frauds,
defalcations, forgeries, robberies, assassinations, and arsons. Against
this tide of corruption the various organized denominations of religion
do nothing effectual. They are an army shut up within their own
intrenchments, holding their own with difficulty, and in no situation to
turn back the furious assaults of the enemy."
"In short," said Jennie, "according to your showing, the whole country
is going to destruction. Now, if things really are so bad, if you really
believe all you have been saying, you ought not to be sitting drinking
your tea as you are now, or to have spent the afternoon playing croquet
with us girls; you ought to gird yourself with sackcloth, and go up and
down the land, raising the alarm, and saying, 'Yet forty days and
Nineveh shall be overthrown.'"
"Well," said Theophilus, while a covert smile played about his lips,
"you know the saying, 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow,' etc. Things
are not yet _gone_ to destruction, only _going_,--and why not have a
good time on deck before the ship goes to pieces? Your chimney-corner is
a tranquil island in the ocean of trouble, and your muffins are
absolutely perfect. I'll take another, if you'll please to pass them."
"I've a great mind _not_ to pass them," said Jennie. "Are you in earnest
in what you are saying or are you only saying it for sensation? How
_can_ people believe such things and be comfortable? _I_ could not. If I
believed all you have been saying, I could not sleep nights,--I should
be perfectly miserable; and _you_ cannot really believe all this, or you
would be."
"My dear child," said Mrs. Crowfield, "our friend's picture is the truth
painted with all its shadows and none of its lights. All the dangers he
speaks of are real and great, but he omits the counterbalancing good.
Let _me_ speak now. There never has been a time in our history when so
many honest and just men held power in our land as now,--never a
government before in which the public councils recognized with more
respect the just and the right. There never was an instance of a
powerful government showing more tenderness in the protection of a weak
and defenceless race than ours has shown in the care of the freedmen
hitherto. There never was a case in which the people of a country were
more willing to give money and time and disinterested labor to raise and
educate those who have thus been thrown on their care. Considering that
we have had a great, harassing, and expensive war on our hands, I think
the amount done by Government and individuals for the freedmen
unequalled in the history of nations; and I do not know why it should be
predicted from this past fact, that, in the future, both Government and
people are about to throw them to the lions, as Mr. Theophilus supposes.
Let us wait, at least, and see. So long as Government maintains a
freedmen's bureau, administered by men of such high moral character, we
must think, at all events, that there are strong indications in the
right direction. Just think of the immense advance of public opinion
within four years, and of the grand successive steps of this
advance,--Emancipation in the District of Columbia, the Repeal of the
Fugitive-Slave Law, the General Emancipation Act, the Amendment of the
Constitution. All these do not look as if the black were about to be
ground to powder beneath the heel of the white. If the negroes are
oppressed in the South, they can emigrate; no laws hold them; active,
industrious laborers will soon find openings in any part of the Union."
"No," said Theophilus, "there will be black laws like those of Illinois
and Tennessee, there will be turbulent uprisings of the Irish, excited
by political demagogues, that will bar them out of Northern States.
Besides, as a class, they _will_ be idle and worthless. It will not be
their fault, but it will be the result of their slave education. All
their past observation of their masters has taught them that liberty
means licensed laziness, that work means degradation,--and therefore
they will loathe work, and cherish laziness as the sign of liberty. 'Am
not I free? Have I not as good a right to do nothing as you?' will be
the cry.
"Already the lazy whites, who never lifted a hand in any useful
employment, begin to raise the cry that "niggers won't work"; and I
suspect the cry may not be without reason. Industrious citizens can
never be made in a community where the higher class think useful labor a
disgrace. The whites will oppose the negro in every effort to rise; they
will debar him of every civil and social right; they will set him the
worst possible example, as they have been doing for hundreds of years;
and then they will hound and hiss at him for being what they made him.
This is the old track of the world,--the good, broad, reputable road on
which all aristocracies and privileged classes have been always
travelling; and it's not likely that we shall have much of a secession
from it. The Millennium isn't so near us as that, by a great deal."
"It's all very well arguing from human selfishness and human sin in that
way," said I; "but you can't take up a newspaper that doesn't contain
abundant facts to the contrary. Here, now,"--and I turned to the
Tribune,--"is one item that fell under my eye accidentally, as you were
speaking:--
"'The Superintendent of Freedmen's Affairs in Louisiana, in making up
his last Annual Report, says he has 1,952 blacks settled temporarily on
9,650 acres of land, who last year raised crops to the value of
$175,000, and that he had but few worthless blacks under his care, and
that, as a class, the blacks have fewer vagrants than can be found among
any other class of persons.'
"Such testimonies gem the newspapers like stars."
"Newspapers of your way of thinking, very likely," said Theophilus; "but
if it comes to statistics, I can bring counter statements, numerous and
dire, from scores of Southern papers, of vagrancy, laziness,
improvidence, and wretchedness."
"Probably both are true," said I, "according to the greater or less care
which has been taken of the blacks in different regions. Left to
themselves, they tend downward, pressed down by the whole weight of
semi-barbarous white society; but when the free North protects and
guides, the results are as you see."