It is not that the
cities are new and the buildings put up yesterday; it is in the
atmosphere of buoyancy, elation, self-reliance, and energy, which one
drinks in everywhere, that this sense of youth is apprehended. It is
youth full of confidence. Is there such a thing anywhere in America as
poverty or the fear of poverty? I do not think so. Men may be hard up
or even stone-broke; there are slums; there are hard-worked women; but
there is no general fear of poverty. In the old countries the fear of
poverty lies on all hearts like lead. To be sure, such a fear is a
survival in England. In the last century the strokes of fate were
sudden and heavy, and a merchant sitting to-day in a place of great
honour and repute, an authority on 'Change, would find himself on the
morrow in the Marshalsea or the Fleet, a prisoner for life; once down
a man could not recover; he spent the rest of his life in captivity;
he and his descendants, to the third and fourth generations--for it
was as unlucky to be the son of a bankrupt as the son of a
convict--grovelled in the gutter. There is no longer a Marshalsea or a
Fleet prison; but the dread of failure survives. In the States that
dread seems practically absent.
Again, youth is extravagant; spends with both hands, cannot hear of
economy; burns the candle at both ends; eats the corn while it is
green; trades upon the future; gives bills at long dates without
hesitation, and while the golden flood rolls past takes what it wants
and sends out its sons to help themselves.
Pages:
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255