Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-05-08
MISCELLANEOUS.
THOUGHT TRACKS.

was as much Intellectual philosophy in my
hammer as in any of the enginery agoing III
modern times, when horrible audin, a most
unearthly screaming pierced my ears. |
stepped IL the door, and there was the great
lion Horse. Yes, he had come, looking, for
all the world, like the great Dragon we read
of in the Scriptures, harnessed to half a living
world and Just landed on the earth, where he
stood braying in surprise and Indignation at
the base use to which he had been turned.
| saw the gigantic hexipen move with a pow
err that made the earth tremble for miles. |
saw the army of human beings gliding with
the velocity Of the wind over the iron track,
and droves of cattle travelling in their stables
at the rate Of twenty miles an hour towards
their city slaughter house. 1t was wonder
full. The little busy bee winged machinery
of the cotton factory dwindled into insignif-
canoe before it. Monstrous beast of passage
and burden it devoured the intervening dis
lance and welded cities together! But for
its furnace-heart and iron sinews, it was no
thing but a beast, an aggregation
of horse potUer. And | went back to the forge
with an %unimpaired reverence for the intellec-
tual philosophy Of my hammer.
Passing along the street one afternoon, l
heard a noise in an old building, as of some
one putting a pair of bellows. So without
more ado, | stepped in; and there, in a cor
ner of a room, | saw the chef de gupre of all
the machinery that has ever been invented
since the birth of Tubal Cain. In its con-
struction, it was as simple and u~nassuming
as a cheese-press. 1t went with a lever
a lever, longer, stronger, than that with which
Archimedes promised 10 lift the world. "It
is a Printing Press" said a boy standing by
the ibk-trough with a %cueless turban of brown
paper on his head. "Printing Press" | que
ried musingly to myself-"a Printing press !
what do you print?" l asked. "Printl !"
said the boy staring at me doubtfully, "why,
we print thoughts" "Print thoughts! |
slowly repeated after him and we stood look
ing for a moment at each other in mutual adj
miration, he in the absence of an idea, and |
in the pursuit of one. But | looked at him
the hardest, and he left another ink mark on
his forehead, from a proph etc motion of his
left hand to quicken his apprehension of my
meaning. "Why, yes" he reiterated in a
tone of forced confidence, as if passing an
idea which, though having been current a
hundred years, might still be counterfeit, for
all he could show on the spot zoe print
thoughts, to be %sure!"
"Dut, my boy" | asked in honest sober
ness, "what are thoughts, how can you get
hold of them to print them4"
Thoughts are what come out of peoples
minds," he replied. Get hold Of them,
indeed! Why minds arn't nothing you can
get hold of; nor thoughts either. All the
minds that were ever made, wouldn't make a
ball as big as your fist. Minds they say arc
just like air; you can't see them they don't
weigh anything. Bill Deepcut, the sexton,
says that a man weighs just as much when
his mind has gone out of him as he did be-
fore. No, sir, all the minds that ever lived
wouldn't weigh an ounce troy
"Then how do you print thoughts :" l
asked elf minds are as thin as air, and
thoughts thinner still, and make no noise, and
have no substance, shade or color and are
like the winds; and more than the winds are
any where ina moment sometimes in heaven,
and sometimes on earth how can you see
them when caught, or show them to others2"
Ezekiel's eyes grew luminous with a new
idea, and pushing his ink-roller proudly
across the metallic page of his newspaper
replied " Thoughts work and walk in things
what makes tracks and we take them tracks
and stamp them on paper CT iron, wood, stone,
or what not. That is the way we prin,
thoughts. Don't you understands"
The pressman let go the lever, and looked
interrogatiyely at Ezekiel, beginning at the
patch on his stringless brogans and following
with his eye to the top Of the boys brown
paper buff cap. Ezekiel comprehended the
felicity of his illustration, and wiping his
hands on his tow apron, gradually assumed
an attitude Of earnest exposition. / gave him
an enc ouraging wink, and SO he went on:
"Thoughis make tracks," he continued
impressively, as if evolving a new phrase
OF the idea by repeating it slowly. Seeing
we assented to this proposition inquirinrly,
no stepped to the type case, with his eye fix.
ed admonishingly upon us. Thoughts make
tracks, he repeated, arranging in his hand a
score or two of metal slips, sand with these
we can take the exact impression of every
thought that ever went out Of the heart of q
man and we can print it too" giving the max.
ed form a blow of triumph with his fst-'w G
can print it too-give US paper and ink enough
till the great round earth is blanketed
around with a ccverlid Of thoughts as much
like the pattern as two peas" Ezekiel
seemed to grow an inch at every word, and
the brawny pressman looked first at him and
then at the press with evident establishment.
"Talk about the minds living forever!''
exclaimed the boy, pointing patronizingly al
the ground, as if mind were lying there in
capable OF Immortality until the printer reach
ed 1t a helping hand,-" why the world is
brlmiul of live, bright, industrious thoughts,
which would have been dead as a stone if Il
hadn't been for boys like me who have run
the ink.rollers. Immortality, indeed WIN,
peoples minds" he continued, with his i'm.
agina'ion climbing into the profaneIy sub
lime" peoples minds wouldn't be immor.
tai II wasn't for the printers-at any rate
IN ms here planetary burying-grOund. We