# American Pocket Library of Useful Knowledge/Mechanics and Working-Men

MECHANICS AND WORKING-MEN.
THE ABLEST MEN WERE MECHANICS.
There never was a doctrine more untrue than the now almost obsolete one, derived from the false distinctions of monarchies, that mechanic professions are menial, and beneath the station of a true gentleman. The truth is, they are almost the only professions that have substance, and reality, and practical utility. The greatest men in the annals of the world, the men who have done most to enlighten it, and advance the prosperity and the liberties of the human race, have been mechanics. It is the directness of mind, the plain good sense their pursuits inculcate, which has led to those immortal discoveries that have enriched and ameliorated the condition of the whole human race. Name but an Arkwright, a Fulton, a Watt, a Franklin, a Whitney, &c., and where do you find their equal?
HINTS TO MECHANICS AND WORKMEN.
If you would avoid the diseases which your particular trades and work are liable to produce, attend to the following hints:
Keep, if possible, regular hours. Never suppose that you have done extra work, when you sit up till midnight.
Abstain from ardent spirits, cordials, and malt liquors. Let your drink be, like that of Franklin, when he was a printer–pure water.
Never use tobacco in any form. By chewing, smoking, or snuffing, you spend money which would help to clothe you, or would enable you, if single, to make a useful present to an aged mother or dependent sister; or, if married, to buy your wife a frock, or get books for your children. You also, by any of these filthy practices, injure your health; bringing on headache, gnawing at the stomach, low spirits, trembling of the limbs, and, at limes, sleeplessness.
Be particular in preserving your skin clean, by regular washing of your hands, and face, and mouth, before each meal, and of your whole body at least once a week; and by combing and brushing the hair daily.
Always have, if possible, fresh air in the room in which you work, but so that you shall not be in a draft.
Take a short time In the morning, if possible, and always in the evening, or towards sundown, for placing your body in a natural posture, by standing erect, and exercising your chest and limbs by a walk where the air is the purest.
If confined in-doors, let your food consist, in a large proportion, of milk and bread, and well-boiled vegetables. Meat and fish ought to be used sparingly.
THE WORKING–MAN’S HOME.
Home! It marks the sacred spot to which the cares and tumult of the world do not reach; and where, except in cases of extreme depravity, its vices do not intrude. If there are gentle affections in the heart, they will break forth around the hearth-stone; if there is an hour of tranquillity amidst perturbed life, it will be that which is spent with wife and children.
I would have the house of the working-man his most delightful resort. To be so, it should be pleasing, even in its outside. It is too common for people to think that because they are poor they must be slovenly and dirty. A little whitewash, a little paint, a little turfing, and a few days of labour about the vines and flowers, will serve to change the whole appearance of the humblest enclosure. Every body is more cheerful in a neat than in a disorderly room. When work is over, and everything in its place, the visiter is more welcome, the husband’s look is brighter, and an affectionate glow spreads itself through the circle.
The common law has acknowledged the principle, that every man’s house is his castle. It is true in more cases than one. Home is the citadel of all the virtues of the people. For by home we mean something more than one’s house: it is the family that makes the home. It is the peculiar abode and domain of the wife; and this one circumstance marks it out as human, and as Christian. Sacred wedlock is the fountain not only of its pleasures, but of its moral excellence. The poorest man who has a virtuous, sensible, industrious and affectionate wife, is a man of wealth. Home is the abode of our children. Here they meet us with their smiles and their prattle. He who unfeignedly enjoys this, cannot be altogether corrupt; and the more we can make men enjoy it, the further do we remove them out of harm’s way. No men, therefore, are better members of society, or more apt to become stable and wealthy citizens, than such as are well married and well settled.
HOME vs. TAVERNS.
The rivals of our Home are many and fearful. Among the direst is the drinking-place, whether known as porter-house, grog-shop, or tavern. The man who spends his evenings in these stygian fumes, soon grovels, and wallows away half his civilization. Where ought he to be, but by his own warm fireside, rewarding his wife for the solitary labours and vexations of the day, and receiving on his own part those cheap but invaluable pleasures, which are as much above the delirium and ribaldry of the bar-room, as the light of day is above the glimmer of a dipped-candle? I am no enemy to tavern-keepers. They are a useful class of men. Their offers of kindness to the stranger and the traveller, ought to be remembered and repaid. The worst effects of ill-conducted taverns are felt, not by the wayfaring-man, for whose behoof the inn is instituted, but by the throng of villagers and neighbours, who have, or who ought to have, homes of their own; who need no tavern, and who resort thither from idleness, from love of excitement, or from beastly appetite.
Ah! if that bar-room could tell the history of the drunkards who have dropped off one by one, how would the hideous revelation scare the very sot.
​The tavern-haunter drinks till he feels himself half-ruined; he is wretched; he drinks to drown his wretchedness; he does drown it, and his soul along with it!
To young men, beginning life, especially to newly married men, the counsel in seasonable: Reverence the Fireside. Admit no rival here. Let your chief joys be shared by her who has forsaken all other hearts and hopes for you; by those who must inherit honour or disgrace from your course of life. Shun the bar-room and the purlieus of intoxication. They are, to thousands, the avenues to infamy.