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lawlo.-snoss of an iillu population. In ro
cent years wo liavi! had n parallel case in
in I ho cnpilol of France, and scarcely any
army can ho more destructive tlian a Pa
risian mob.
Let us now view the vice as wo see it to.
day in social iifo, thu piirunl of innumoi
able evils. It is not eonllned to any ono
class, hut. is found alike among llio poor
and the wealthy, the uneducated and the
educated. It is common to the country
and the eily, hul it is in the latter Hint ils
inlluenee is most apparent and powerful.
Street loungers and grocery loafer" are
there to he found hy the score. Having
no husiness of (heir own to attend to, they
make liiemselves familiar to the more re.
spoctahle denizens as well hy nocturnal
disturbances as hy kindred demonstra
tions hy daylight.
They heroine maintuiners of gambling
hells and billiard halls. Ihe demoializors
of tilts young hy Iheir profanity and row
dy is.ni, and the chief element of lawless
ness and crime in the body politic.
So great is the power of the oily for evil
that great care is required of lhn.se
thrown on the world, voung and inexpe
rienced, if 1 1 iy would escape ils contami
nating iuiluences. It is not Hie iudustri
oils and the orderly, hul llio idle, the way.
ward and the unprincipled, among whom
the vice i.s found in this aspect. In the
country, the lepresenlatives of I his class
of idler., are similar in their habits, and,
if nuineroii', are the post of the comipu.
nily hy their pilforings and disorderly
conduct. A iiotahlo illustration is afford
ed hy those individuals knowi as
" tramps," who have lately hrought thorn,
selves prominently into the public no
tice. Another olas of idlers, lo-'s obnoxious,
perhaps, than the last, but yet harmful, is
composed, not of the poor but of the
wealthy: of men who have amassed great
wealth, chielly by exorbitant profits on
mercliaudi.se, and have abandoned them
selves to luNiiiious ease, thereby squan
dering princely incomes, while the vast
majority of struggling humanity demand
a fairer show and a more equitable dis
tribution of wealth. The old saying:
"iMolhnnd rust consume faster than la
bor wears," finds hoio a good confirma
tion. Very often lliey themselves become
more drones, and their children, reared in
luxury and the recipients of thai defer
ence which is usually paid to wealth,
grow up possessed of lilile self-reliance,
and not being subjected to that stern yet
matchless discipline which accompanies
poverty, rarely become moie than pyg
mies in point of practical worth.
A third class is represented by educated
persons who make lilile or no use of their
knowledge, and loiter about at some
trifling occupation. Though not idlers
absolutely, they are yet so in a measure,
as they can put their mental capital to lar
belter advantage. Now, education is cap
ital, sometimes far more available for a
support than manual labor. More ave
nues are open to the educated (ban to the
uneducated, yet there is no royal road to
true learning. It is only obtained by
years of diligent labor, and often by self
denial and expent-e. lie who does not
put it to account is no less a miser than
he who hoards up a fortune and lives
from hand to mouth. The members of
this class are not so rare as they should
be.
Having thus far considered the charac
ter of idleness, lei us now see whether it
may not to a great extent ho avoided.
In some cases, the evils resulting from
a want of honest employment have re
ceived much attention. It was a UHxiiu
with the Ilchieus, that the father who
does uol train up his sou in some occupa
tion leaches him to steal; and they pul it
into practical application. Dr. Francia,
llio dictator of Paraguay, made il a law in
that country, that every citizen should ho
taught reading, writing and arithmetic
and also bo compelled to work at some
occupation. Such treatment as the above
would be of litllo avail were public senti
ment against it and the remedy lies rather
in assailing il al the foundation.
"Wo hoar the cries from some quarters
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