Lafayette Moonshine. 417 
sings which iraply neither more nor less than that he felt himself 
about being removed from the vile rubbish of toil and labor, to 
enter upon a sphere of elegance and leisure, where soiled hands 
have no proximity, and labor wrings no sweat drops from the care- 
worn brow. 
Lafayette, or as the family cognomen more usually recognize 
him, Fay-ette, .was the eldest of rather a numerous family, conse- 
quently he was an only, and of couise a petted child, until the birth 
of a sister called in the claims of parental solicitude. His parents 
had lived on the farm, though perhaps not by farming, for his 
father had to some extent, indulged the same feelings which was 
actuating the son, and hence, had managed to get along with his 
farm by hiring, while his own time was spent in the to many, un- 
profitable, but more genteel employment of teaming, when and 
where ciicumstances invited. Up to the morning we have spoken 
of, Master Fay-ette had not only heard his father speak in terms 
which expressed an utter dislike to the labor of the farm, but amid 
many declarations of his own prettiness and aptness had met with 
oft repeated assurances that he was destined to a higher and more 
poble calling. No wonder then, that nurtured as he had been in 
the hot bed of folly and sprinkled with the waters of disgust, he 
should give utterance to expressions denunciatory to the culture of 
the earth. But where the elevation of position was found by 
taking a clerkship we cannot imagine and do not premise. Our 
successful merchants are men of great industry and will uniformly 
acknowledge that they owe this position to unremitting care and 
close application to business. As to the difference of rlignity in 
the two professions, this can be determined at once. All lawful 
and honorable callings are alike respectable and the existence and 
prosperity of each are alike essential to the prosperity of the whole, 
so that society at large, whether located in cities, towns or rural 
hamlets, may be compared to a vast machine, in which if a part 
be wanting, its absence is felt through all its complications. The 
city and the country are mutually benefited by each other's exist- 
ence, and while the denizens of each are pursuing their several 
occupations, they aid in advancing the prosperity of the other. 
Not so however thought Master Lafayette and his discriminatino- 
parents. The latter saw at one vivid glance of thought, that the 
course thiy had marked out for their hopeful son, would raise him 
at once from the depths of plebeian degradation in which they 
were so unfortuately born, to an elevated position worthy of their 
high aspirations. 
With these feelings growing in parental hearts, and dreams of 
waking renow-n inspiring the breast of our young hero, we behold 
him transferred to the city and initiated as cleik in the retail es- 
tablishment of Miles Blenheim & Co. Dear youth! how enviable 
27 
