Bloomington herald. [volume] (Bloomington, I. T. [Iowa]) 1840-1849, 1841-03-19
From the Albany IN. W Cultiva:or.
1871.

| From the Albany IN. W Cultivaor.
| 1871.
| Eyes, the year is growing old,
| And his eye is pale and bleared!
| Death, with frosty hand and cold,
| Plucks the old man by the beard,
! Sorely,-sorely!
| The leaves arc falling. falling,
| Solannly and slow;
| Cav! cav! the rocks are calling,
It is sound of wo,
A sound of wo!'
THE wear Eighteen Hundred and Forty, with
its busiling scenes, with its hopes aud fears,
with its good and evil, has passed away! Its
dead are numbered-i,s incidents are register
| edits bearing for veal or wee on the destl-
| MES of our race is decided. 1t is now for ev-
erv one-the christian, the phiianhropist, as
well as the business man, 10 "strne the bal
ance'' of the departed year, and to ask himself
| "whai Is my relative position to that occupied
| by me at the close of 1889! what have /
achieved where have erred how shall |
| add to the hrst-how retrieve the last!'
What has been achieved by the agricultur-
list! What are the " signs of promise?" So
! far as the products of industry are concerned,
the s'balance'' is in his favor. beneflcent
Providence has filled our gamers to overflow
| ING. Throughout all of our broad and DIVERSE
| fed country, extending over about twenty five
degrees of latitude, scarcely crop has failed,
except in small districts and to limited ex-
tent. But this does not answer all the ques-
| ton. Those products which afford alIment to
| man, though the proXmale object and reward
| of industry, were not all that the agrcuturst
| of 1910 was called upon to labor for. There
| was higher and nober field for him to pillow,
| to sow, aud to reap. He was called upon to
| lend his efforts, to contribute his mite. toward
the moral and social elevation of his calling.
| The Roman, in the better days of his coun-
| try, knew something Of the dignity Of labor,
| but in the long darkness of Gothic night which
| followed, war and the chase were the only
| pursuits supposed to beft those Of 'genle
bood.'' In other words. butchery aud rapne,
| during portion Of the time, and the pursuit of
| hare or deer, with hounds ard horns and
troops of menials, during the remainder. were
supposed to be the only occupations becoming
the {" high born and noble" The tiler of the
soil was a serf-a bondsman. The Feudal
Age, with It's barbaric pomp, has pass ID away.
The pillow has passed over the mouldering rel
les ci baronal pride. The cul,ivator ofthe soil
is no longer a beast Of bnrthen, his occupa-
ton has risen from mere hahdicraft to pro-
fession calling for the exercise Of talents and
the application of scientific principles; but not
wilhstanding all this, he has not yet attained
to the true relative dignity Of his station among
his fellow men.
| Among the privileged orders of the old world,
manual labor is still regarded as a degradation.
In our own country, though the feeling does
not prevail to the same extent ii is easy TO dis
cover traces Of the same absurd and unmanly
prejudice. How rarely do we witness an in
stance of professional man or a merchant vol
UNFAIRLY educating his children to honest toll !;
to become producers instead of consumers :!
i And worse than this, the farmer himself, false
to the dignity Of his calling, not unfrequently
exhibits an itching desire to save his children
from life of labor! This dimunilion of pro-
ducers and increase Of consumers, is one Of the
marked causes of the disasters which have fall
len on our nation. In this mania to escape la
bcr every profession and every pursuit not re-
qYiring bodily tell, has been overstocked.
What is more common than to witness in some
of our smallest villages, which should scarce
ly support two lawyers, score of attorneys,
rendered greedy by want, aud obliged to pro-
mote litigation, to obtain their bread! ''Two
doctors riding on one horse," has passed into
pfoverb. Hundreds Of broke" young mer-
chants. many Of thom the sol S OF farmers, and
who started life with capital, which, united
with industry, would have made them prosper
Gus and independent farmers. are now eating
the bitter bread of poverty. Politics too sup
ports its class of non-producers, and its ave.
nues to preferment are choked with crowds Of
eager votaries, four-ftths of whom must neces-
sarily be disappointed and even the fortunate
few. at the first GRAFTON of the political wheel
are cast upon the worId-out OF business-and
with habits acquired which would render bust.
ness irksome, and connect the idea of manual
labor with that of intolerabe degradation
How many such men might exclalm in the
spirit Of Woolsey-
"Had but served myself with hafthc zeal
Iscrved my party should not, in mine age,
Have been left naked TO mine enemies"
There is another numerous class of non-pro
ducers, not to lie omitted in this catalogue
the speculators-those lords of paper domains
those rare architects, who, like the Gerii Of
Arabian tales, built up in a single night gor.
geous cities in the distant wi!derness-those
achemists who beat them of old, for they dis
covered that wondrous elixir Qound to consis
of avarice and credu,ty in equal parts) which
Transmitted every thing to gold-Bangor pine
trees, and Rocky Mountain s. city lots!' Blu
their gold,
"Like to the apples on the Dead Seas shore,
| All ashes to the tas.e,'-
has proved but sorry counterfeit!
1t is not my design to invoke prejudice
against the learned professions, or against an,
honest calling. The merchant is necessar,
instrument of the farmer. He works for thu
farmer and he receives his pay. He receives
his products or the avaIs of them-transport
, them to distant markets, and brings him bacI