The freeman. (Fremont [Ohio]) 1849-1850, 1850-03-16
why left the Anvil.
By EL1Hu RuRRITT.


fession l will be honest now, and tell you
the whole story. was transported from the
anvil to the editors chair by the genius of ma
chinery. Don't smile, friends it was even So
| had stood for hours and looked on those
iron intellects, those iron fingered, sober, sup
pie automatons, as they caught up bale of
cotton, and twirled it in the twinkling of an
eve, into a whirlpool of wbizzng shreds, and
laid it at my feet in folds of snow-white CLOTH
ready for the use of our most yoluptuous an
tipodes They were wonderful things, these
looms and spindles; but they could not spin
thoughts; there was no attribute of Divinity
in them; and / admired them, nothing more.
They were excessively curious, but | could
estimate the whole compass of their doings
and destiny in finger power; so came away
and left them spinning
One day was tuning my anvil beneath a
hot iron, and busy with the thought, that there
was as much intellectual philososhy in my ham
mer as in any of the enginry going in mod
ern times, when most unearthly screaming
pierced my ears; I stepped to the door, and
there it was, the great Iron Horse! Yes, he
had come, looking for all the world like the
great dragon we read of in the Scripture, har
messed to half living world and just landed
on the earth, where he stood braying in sur
prise and Indignation at the base uses he had
been turned. / saw the array of human be-
ings gliding with the velocity of wind over the
iron track, aud droves of cattle travelling in
their stables at the rate of twenty miles an
hour, toward their city slaughter-house. 1t
was wonderful The little busy bee-winged
machinery of the cotton factory dwindled into
insignifcence before it. Monstrous beast of
passage and burdeni it devoured the inter-
yening distance, and welded the cities togeth-
er! But for its furnace heart and iron sin
ews, it was nothing but beast an enormous
aggregation of-horse power. And l went
back to the forge with unimpaired reverence
for the intellectual philosophy of my hammer.
Passing along the street one afternoon
heard noise in an old building, as of some
one putting pair of bellows. So without
more ado stepped in, and there, in a corner
of room l saw the chef-d'euvre of all the ma
chinery that has ever been invented since the
birth of Tubal Cain. In its construction it
was as simple and unassuming as cheese
press. 1t went with a lever-with a lever,
longer, stronger than that with which Archim-
ides promised to lift the world.
at is printing PRESS said boy standing
by the ink trough, with a cueless turban of
brown paper on his head. "a printing press p
queried, musingly TO myself. "A printing
press? what do you print ~ Iasked. "Print? %
said the boy, staring at me, doubtfully .'why,
we print thoughts" "Print thoughts ?''
slowly repeated after him; and we stood look
| ing for moment at each other, in mutu Sad-
miration; he in the absence of an idea and
in pursuit of one. But looked at him the
hardest, and he left another ink mark on his
forehead, from pathetic motion of his left
hand, to quicken his apprehension of my mean
ing.
"Why, yes" he reiterated, in a tone of fore
/ ed 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, .we print thoughts to-be-sure. "
f'.But, my boy,'' asked in sober earnestness.
"what are thoughts, and how can you get hold
of them to print them ?" Thoughts are what
come out of peoples minds he replied
"Get hold of them, indeed? Why minds amt
nothn you can get hold of, nor thoughts Ell
ther. All the minds that ever thought, and
all the thoughts thatminds ever made, wouldn't
make ball as big as your fist Minds they
say are just like air; you can'tsee them; they
don't make any noise, nor have they any color
they don't weigh anything. Bill Deepcut, the
sexton, says that man weighs just as much
when his mind is gone out of him as he did
before. No, sir all the minds that ever lived
wouldn't weigh an ounce troy"
"Then how do you print thoughts % ask
ed 'If minds are thin air, and thoughts are
thinner still, and make no noise, and have nc
substance, shade. or color, and are like the
winds, and more than the winds, are anywhere
/ in moment; sometimes in heaven, and some
times on the earth, and in the waters under
the earth; how can you get hold of them
how can you see them when caught, or show
them to others %
Ezekiel's eyes grew luminous with new
idea, and pushing his ink-rolier proudly across
the metallic page Of the newspaper, he replied
Thoughts work and walk in things what make
tracks; and we take them tracks, and STAMP
them on paper, or iron, wood stene, or wha
not That is the way we print thoughts
Don't you understand"
The pressman let 60 the lever, and looked
iuterrogatingly at Ezekiel, beginning at the
patch on his stringless brogans, and following
up with his eye to the top of the boys brown
paper buff cap, Ezekiel comprehended tn
felicity of his illustration, and wiping his hand
on his tow apron, gradually assumed an atti
SuAO Vi OotbSob POoA1tOu' SofO AiLA eA1A O1
couraging wink and so he went on.
Thoughts make tracks, he continued i'm
pressively, as if evolving new phase Of tn
idea by repeating it slowly. Seeing we as
sented to this proposition, nquiringly, he step
; ped to the type case, with his eye fixed ad
monishingly upon US, "Tho'ts make tracks.
) 'he repeated, arranging in his left hand scor
] or two of metal slips and with these her
/ letters we can take the exact impressions c
every human thought that ever went out ofth
E heartof human man; and we can print i
: too," giving the mixed form blow of trump
with his fist ''we can print it too, give US pa
e per and ink enough, till the great round cart
is blanketed around with coverlet of thought
. as much like the pattern as two peas" Ezekit
seemed to grow an inch at every word, an
S the brawny pressman looked first at him, an
: then at the press with evident astonishmen
e "Talk about the minds living foreveri" e,
: claimed the boy, pointing patronizingly at tt
ground, as if mind were lying there incapabl