112 SAGADAHOC COUNTY SOCIETY. 



hopes and ruined fortunes those cities are built upon, and how 

 very small the chances are for obtaining fair and honorable success. 

 Think how many wanderers there are from their father's house and 

 their native State, who would be glad to-day to seek peace and 

 rest in the paternal mansion, and who would to-day rejoice to be 

 the recipients of the peaceful independence of the farmer's life in 

 the good State of Maine. 



But such is the haste to become rich in this country, and so 

 strong the hope of reaping large rewards by trade and speculation, 

 and such the desire to live without labor, it matters not to many 

 on whose industry, that men, more especially young men, are con- 

 stantly enticed away from their homes and those industrial pursuits 

 which are sure to bring a liberal supply for all our temporal wants. 

 They join that large throng of adventurers who are constantly 

 rushing toward our large towns and cities in search of employment 

 and bread, or float about the country without any distinct plan or ob- 

 ject in view. A large percentage of these young men who go out 

 from their native towns, and in most cases from their native State, 

 are from our agricultural districts. They leave the old homestead, 

 the pleasant hillside with its pure air and exhilerating health, the 

 beautiful vallej^ with its songs of birds and fragrance of flowers, 

 to become mechanics and manufacturers, toilers in the counting- 

 house, to encounter the dangers of the mariner's life on the sea 

 and in the tropical climates, to become rash speculators rushing 

 upon bankruptcy, or often, far too often mere adventurers without 

 definite aim or object, floating waifs upon the currents of life. 



How vastly important then, that these young men jshould be 

 well fitted by educating the moral sense, or conscience, and the 

 aflections, as well as the head, to encounter the battles of life. 

 As the best and only safeguard midst temptation they must have 

 that high moral tone, that sincere religious trust, that unswerving 

 honesty, that devoted patriotism, that will prove the only security 

 against compromising justice, honor or country for gold or power. 

 Besides a good English education, as a necessity for success and 

 true manhood, they need a father's constant good example, sound 

 counsel and watchful care in their moral training, and a mother's 

 pure love and devoted affection to instill pure principles and ele- 

 vate the soul to a love of the holy and true. Give your sons and 

 daughters these high attainments, my friends, and you will give 

 them that which will prove better than name or fortune, tlie best 



