San Andreas independent., 1858-09-04
WHY I LEFT THE ANVIL,
BY ELHU BURRurr.

7 L see IL! 1uu sseuld ask Z s.4as-A
have to say for myself for dropping the
hammer and taking up the quill, as a
member Of your profession. | will BE-
honest. nos, and tel you the Mhole3toE4
| was transposed from the anfik . tke4
editors chair by the genius of machinery.
Don't smile, friends, it ts even 50. fhad
stood and looked for hours on those
thoughtless iron intellects, those iron
fingered, sober, supple automatons, as
they caught up ball of cotton and twirled
| it, in the twinkling of an eye, into a
whirlwind of whizzing shreds, and laid it
at my feet in folds of snow white cloth,
ready for the use of the most yoluptuous
antipodes. They are wonderful things,
those 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 being and destiny in
finger power, so [ went away; and left
them spinning cotton.
One day | was tuning my anvil beneath
a hot iron, and busy with the thought
that there was much intellectual philoso-
ply In my hammer as an enginery agoing
IN modern times, when most unearthly
scream reached my ears; | 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 have
read of IN the Scripture, harnessed to
half living world, and just landed on the
earth, where he stood braying with sur
prise and Indignation at the base use to
which he had been turned. [ saw the
gigantic hexapod move with power that
made the earth tremble for miles saw
the army Of human beings gliding with
the velocity Of wind over the~iron track,
and droves of cattle travelling in their
stables, at the rate of twenty miles an hour
toward the city slaughter house. 1t was
wonderful. The little busy bee-winged
machinery of the cotton factory dwindled
into insignifcance before it. Monstrous
beast of passage and burden! 1t devoured
the intervening distance, and welded the
cities togethorl But for its furnace heat
and iron sinews, it was nothing but a
beast, an enormous aggregation of horse
power. And [ went back to the forge
with unimpaired reverence for the intel
lectual philosophy of my hammer.
Passing along the street one afternoon,
| heard noise in an old building, as of
some one putting pairo of bellows. So,
without more ado, | stepped in, and then,
IN corner of room, [ saw the chief
d oeuver Of all machinery that ever has
been invented since the birth of Tubal
Cain. In its construction it was as sim
pie as a cheese press. 1t went with a
lever; with lever stronger than that
with which Archimedes promised to lift
the world
"lt is printing press" said a boy
standing by the trough, with a careless
turban of brown paper on his head. "a
printing press !" | queried musinely to
myself: "a printing press what do
you print y [ asked "Prnt !" said
the boy, staring at me doubtfully, "whv
we print thoughts ~ "Print thoughts, "
| slowly repeated after him; and we stood
looking for a moment at each other in
mutual admiration; he in the absence of
an idea, and in pursuit of one. But
looked at him the hardest, ard he left
another inkspot on his forehead, from
pathetic motion of his left hand to quick
en- his apprehensions of my meaning
Why, yes" he reiterated in tone of
forced confidence, as if passing an idea,
/ w HOY
dred years, might still be counterfeit, for
all he could show on the spot, eve print
thoughts, to be sure" "But, my boy,"
| asked, in an honest soberness, +" what
are thoughts, how can you get hold of
them?" "Thoughts are what come out
of peoples minds" he replied 'Get
hold of them, indeed. Why minds are
nothing you can get hold Of or thoughts
either All the minds that ever thought,
and all the thoughts that minds ever
made, would not make a ball 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 any color; they don't
weigh anything. Bill Deepcut, the sex
ton, says man weighs just as much when
his mind has gone out of him as he did
before. No, sir; all the minds that ever
lived would not weigh an ounce troy.
"Then how do you print thoughts? IF
minds are as thin as air, and thoughts are
still and make no noise, and have 20 SUBJ
stance, shade, or color, and are like the
winds, are anywhere in moment, some
times in heaven, and sometimes in earth,
how can you see them when caught, or
show them to others?"
Ezekiel's eyes grew luminous with
new idea, and pushing the ink roller
proudly across the metallic pages of the
newspaper. he replied: "Thoughts work
and walk in things that make tracks: and
we take them tracks and stamp them on
paper, or iron, wood, stone or what not.
This is the way we print thoughts. Do
you understand 2"
The pressman let go of the lever and
looked interrogatively at Ezekiel, begin
ming at the patch on his stringless bro
gans, and following up with his eye to
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