: Sermons Preached at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle New York During the Year 1861. by Paulist Fathers - Catholic Church Sermons; Sermons American 19th century

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I A BORN AND BRED NEW ENGLANDER 1

II THIRTY DOLLARS A WEEK 18

V WE PROSPECT 67

VI I BECOME A DAY LABORER 82

X THE EMIGRANT SPIRIT 146

ONE WAY OUT

ONE WAY OUT

A BORN AND BRED NEW ENGLANDER

My great-grandfather was killed in the Revolution; my grandfather fought in the War of 1812; my father sacrificed his health in the Civil War; but I, though born in New England, am the first of my family to emigrate to this country--the United States of America. That sounds like a riddle or a paradox. It isn't; it's a plain statement of fact.

As a matter of convenience let me call myself Carleton. I've no desire to make public my life for the sake of notoriety. My only idea in writing these personal details is the hope that they may help some poor devil out of the same hole in which I found myself mired. They are of too sacred a nature to share except impersonally. Even behind the disguise of an assumed name I passed some mighty uncomfortable hours a few months ago when I sketched out for a magazine and saw in cold print what I'm now going to give in full. It made me feel as though I had pulled down the walls of my house and was living my life open to the view of the street. For a man whose home means what it does to me, there's nothing pleasant about that.

However, I received some letters following that brief article which made the discomfort seem worth while. My wife and I read them over with something like awe. They came from Maine and they came from Texas; they came from the north, they came from the south, until we numbered our unseen friends by the hundred. Running through these letters was the racking cry that had once rended our own hearts--"How to get out!" As we read some of them our throats grew lumpy.

"God help them," said my wife over and over again.

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