Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1851-03-19
WHY | LEFT THE ANVIL.
BY ELIHU BURRITT.

see it, you would ask me what had to
say for myself for dropping the hammer and
taking up The quill, member of yonr pro-
fe >son. will be honest now and tell you
the whole story. was lransposed from The
anvil to the editors chair by the genius of
machinery. DON'T smile, friends, it was
even so. had stood and look ed for hours
on those thong iron inlellects, those
iron-fngered, sober, supple automatons, as
they caught up bale of cotton, and lwlrIed
it in the twinkIng Of an eye, into whirl-
wind Of whizzing shreds, and laid it at my
feet in folds Of snow-white cloth, ready for
use for the most volumtupuous antipodes.
They were wonderful things those looms and
spindIes but they could not spin thoughts :;
but 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 i'll finger power; so ! went a.
way and left them spinning-cotton.
Oae day ] was tuning my anvil beneath a
hot iron, and busy with The thought that
there was as much intellectual philosophy in
my own hammer as in any of The enginery
u
earthly screaming reached my ears; | step
ped 10 the door, and there i, was, the grea'
Iron Horse! Yes, he had come. looking for
al The world like the great Dragon we read
Of in Scripture harnessed to half a living
world aud jns' landed on the earth, where he
stood baying in surprise and Indignation al
the ''base use" he had been turned. | saw
the gigantic hexiped move with power that
made The earth tremble for miles. saw the
army Of human beings gliding with the We
locity Of the wind over the iron track, and
droves of cattle travelling in their stables al
the rate of twenty miles an hour toward
their ci,y-slaugh,er house. 1t was wonder
ful The lillle busy winged machinery
Of The cotton factory dwindIed into insight
fcance before it. Monsrous beast Of pas
sage and burden! 1t devoured The interven-
ing distance, and welded them together -
But for lis furnace heat and iron sinews it
was nothing but beast An enormous az
gregate of-horse power. And 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 some
one putting pair of bellows. So without
more ado, stepped in, and there, in cor
ner of The room, ! saw The chiefd'euvre Of
all the machinery that has ever been invent
ed since the days Of Tubal Cain. In its
construction it is as simple and unassuming
as cheese press, went with lever, longer
and stronger than that with which Arch-
medes promised TO lift the world.
iS i'll
ing by the ink trough, with a cueless turban
of white paper on his head.
"A printing press % ] queried musingy
to myself. "a printing press? what do
you prin, ?" asked.
'Print 20 said the boy staring al me doubt
fully, "why we print thoughts"
"Print thoughts J" slowly repeated after
him; and we stood loking for moment al
each other in mutual admiration; he in the
absence of an idea, and in the pursuit of
one. But looked a, him the hardest, and
he left another ink mark on his forehead, from
pathetic motion of his left hand, to quick
en- 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 hun
dred years, might snll be counterfeit, for
all he could show on the spot, ''we prn.
thoughts to be sure''
''But my boy" asked in honest sober
ness, "what are thoughts, and how do you
get hold Of Them to print -
Thoughts are what come out of the peo-
ple's minds" he replied. "Get hold orthem,
indeed Why minds arm. nothing you can
gel held of, nor thoughts either. All the
minds that ever thought, and all the thoughts
as big as your fist. Minds, they say, are
just like air; you can't see them they
don't make any noise, nor have color, they
don't weigh anything. Bill Deepcut, the
sexton, says, tha, man weighs just as much