Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1850-06-20
why left the Anvil.
BY EL1HU BURRITT.


see it; you would ask what have to say for
myself for dropping the hammer and taking up
The quill, as a member OF your profession.
will be honest now, aud tell YOU the whole slo-
ry. was transported from the anvil 10 The
editors chair by The genius OF machlnery--.
Don't smile, friends. il was even so. had
stood and looked for hours on those ihoughlless
iron inlellects, fingered sober. supple auoma-
tons, as they caught up bale of cotton, and
twirIed j, in the twipkllng Of an eye into a
whirlpool Of whizzlng shreds. and laid a, my
feet in folds of snoww hite cloth, ready for the
use of our most volupluous antipodes They
were wonderful things, those, looms and spin.
dies; but they could not spin thoughts; there
was no attribute Divinity in them, aud admired
them, nothing more. They were excessively
curious, bu, could estimate The whole COM
pass of their doings and destiny in finger pow
or; so came away and left them spinning
cotton.
One day | was turning my anvil beneath
no, iron, and busy with he thought that
there was as much intellectual philosophy
in my hammer as in any of the englnery a
going in modern times, when most uneauhly
screaming pierced my ears; stepped TO the
door, and there il was, a great iron Horse
Yes, he had come, looking for all! the world
like The grea, Dragon We have read Of in The
Scriptures, harnessed 10 half a living world,
and Jus, landed ON earth, where he stood
braying in surprise and indignation at the base
use 10 which he had been turned | saw the
great array Of human beings gliding with the
velocity OF the wind over iron track, aud dfoves
of cattle travelling at the rate of twenty miles
an hour, toward their city slaughter house.
IL was wonderful. The busy bee-wnged ma
chinery of the cotton factory dwindled into
Iinsipnificance before it. Monslrous beast of
passage and burden 1t devcu1ed the intervening
distance, aud welded The cities together! But
for its furnace heart and iron sinew, il vas
noihing but beast an enormous aggregation
of horse power And went back ioihe forge
with uninpaired reverence for The intellectual
philosophy OF my hammer. aT
Passing along the street one afternoon,
heard noise in an old building, as of some one
putting pair of bellows. So vii houl much ado
stepped in, and there, in a corner of the room,
saw ehef-d'euyre of all The machinery that
had ever been invented since The birth Of Tu-
bal Caa In It's construction It was as sim
pie and unassumlng as cheese press. Il
went with lever, longer and stronger, lhan that
with which Archimldes promised TO lift the
world.
Itis a printing press said boy standing
by an ink trough, with cneless turban of
brown paper on his head. "A pFinIing-press'
queried musingly 10 myself "A printing
press! what do you prinf ! asked. PRINT
said the boy, staring al me. doubtfully, why,
we print .hoagh,s' Print thoughsv slow
y repeated after him; and We stood looking for
moment al each other in mutual admiration;
he in the absence OF an idea, and in The pur-
suit OF one. But looked a, him the hardest, and
he left another Ink mark on his forehead, from
pathetic motion Of his lel. hand TO quicken
his apprehension of my meaning.
Why, yes,' he reiterated, IN tone oi iorced
confidence, as if passing an idea, which though
having been current hundred years. nigh,
still be counletfeii, for all he could show on
the snol. We print ihoughls TO be sure.--
But my boy ! askediD honesl soberness,
,wba. are thoughts, and how can you gel hold
of Them TO print them 2 Thoughts are whaI
come ou, of peoples minds. he replied. Get
hold Of them, indeed! Why, minds ain'l moth
ing YOU can gel hold OF. nor thoughts elhes.-
All The minds ha. ever lhough', and the
thoughts iha, minds ever made, wouldn't make
ball as big as your f.,. Miods. they say
are iusl like air, you cans see theal;lhey don''.
make any noise. nor have any color they
doni weigh anything Bill Deepeu', the sex