Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-01-27
lFor the Journal
Eating NO Labor.

fortune to behold with his own ewes the
pyramids OF Egypt, those gigantic masses
which seem rather to have been piled up nv
Titans, in their endeavor to scale the
heavens, chan by mans unrelenting indus
try, must have felt himself overwhelmed
with astOnishment at the extraordinary ends
attained by labor. Forgetting that those
monuments, which have lasted for'y ceutu.
ries, caused many tear to an enslaved
nation, he would only compare mans little
ness with these giants and conclude to the
endless power Of labor But suppose surlv
and sluggish son of Albion, sitting bv a
monstrous roast beef, in the very funeral
room of the Pharaohs, would pretend that
masticating and dgesting the pile before
him is more of feat than the erection Of
the pyramids, he would receive for an
answer s'bnilding the pyramids is one thino
aud digesting is another" Without wish.
ing to deprive John Bull of the glory Of his
digestive powers, it is hard to understand
how one could consistently bring in a lecture
on labor, stomach, gastric juice, chyme and
chyle and all the appendages which would
lilly illustrate lecture on natural physi.
ology. The word labor naturally reminds
one Of all the achievements of man the
canals built by the Pharaohs to distribute
the alter Of the Nile throughout all Egvnt
the walls and suspended gardens OF Baby.
lon. the massive sculptures Of Nineveh whose
ruins are mountains, the solidly bull, Roman
ways leading to oil the conquered parts of
Europe, the msgni6cence of the Roman
metropolis which is yet the wonder of our
progressive age, and thousand other stu
pendous works whose name is legion.
For Us Americans the word labor has
still more meaning. 1t is written in fresh
and indelible characters ON our opnlent
cities which have replaced tho primeval
forests, on those endless prairies crossed bv
innnmerable railways, ON those canals
which connect cities and States: in one
word, labor is our life as it is our glory. II
you speak of labor, may think vet Of that
copy of the Had contained in
q nutshell, of the Ms. of the Alexandra
library, and of all the treasures of penman.
ship religiously kept in the Thousand libra
ries OF the world, as a testimony of wha.
labor can do. Others may see fin labor
nothing but potato, Ur piece Of bread, or
a cabbage we'll digested; it is their right,
according to the old axiom of tastes and
colors we need not dispute" s .'-- -
The lecture on labor revealed in its AL
thor man of general reading, of universal
but it lacked method and order
1t should have been more elaborate: it had
no smack of the night lamp, and needed
more labor to throw light on that mixture
Of scraps aed facts thrown up as it were by
chance and as much surprise to find them
selves coupled together az the audience
were in listening to them. as
An old ReTan said two thousand vears
age: HE who defines vel; is almost
God" The lecturer made no attempt at
divinity; he did not define hissubiect. It NAV
DO thought obsolete, in our day, to spes k Of
The ancients' maxims and still more to con.
orm to them. But the present subject
shows the utility of defining; since, for
having omitted it, the lecturer began with |
|. treatise ON physiology, spoke about the
tngl'sh NATIONAL debt. about the Englishman
IT the island and the Enylishman of the /
,ont'ne't, who, by the way, are no more
Englis'men than digestion is labor. and |
by Bringing into his already too
ride scope the subject Of study and thought.
which strictly speaking. 10 not labor. How
he English national debt, British tyranny
md American independence could be brought
o bear On the subject Of labor is as diff.
'ult to explain as the relations of labor with
digestion. The lec' urer made several des.
'erate but laudable attempts at9eloquence,
,ut the tickle dam always ran swifter than
him and left him cold, grssping at big words
md polishing sentences with no other effect
N the audience than would a man have
anting for breath or wishing to blow out
'indle. Fiowery language, refined style,
1ost clothe ideas-there is no eloqusnce
7ithout them. A series of beautifully
lrung sentences, without connection and
ieas to clothe, may astonish the crowd, but
, the literary scholar it is flower without {
erfume, splendidly set table without
nything to eat, or it NAV look like beau +
full dress in the miilner's show case You e
ill say 'scriticism il easy but art is diff 7
ait; we should not be 90 fastidious when I
cturer does his best" 1t is all true. but a
nprovem Mt is possible, and when all are
sposed to admire, it cannot be altogether t
ithout utility to find sometimes an e
u agi5.y2 .a5 zai1.13a ARIsr.RcHus.o