Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1862-01-24
WORK

I
/ recently delivered by Mr. Walter Wells be
/ fore the Merchants Literary Association of
New York. in urging the dignity and ne
ccssiiy of the great law Of labor, he says:
-The earth is as much piece of work as 4
cotton factory, and its present condition has
cos; an enormous ontly Of labor The area of
the globe is l96.O0O,0OO of square miles. and
this vast surface is covered with powdered
rocks. the production Of which cost much work
and the outlay Of an vast am1unt Of power
/ What is it bat work when earthquake shakes
the mighty Andes. and cracks the rocky epi-
derms of the earth, reducing millions of tons
of rock to powder? The pyramids of Egypt
cost the labor of 100000 men, working TWEEN
ty years. But in South America there is
mass of solid rock, forty-fve times greater
Than Chcops, which was uphcaved from depths
Of miles below 10 miles above, and that too, in
a vertical direction. It took FIVE millions of
men two years to build the wall of China. but
what IS that to the mighty chain of the Andes,
Of the Ilimalaya, lifted by Natures forces?-
| Every chain of mountains is a memorial of Ia
Dor, performed upon AMI in behalf of
/ the earth. Its surface, once covered with
craggy mountains, like those Of the moon has
been reduced mostly to plains. II it costs $1,000
to sm)othe mile of railroad, how much labor
must be expended in breaking down the
mountains Of the earth? And the earth is as
truly the ihare of work now as ever.
/ Much work IS done by agents which get no
credit for it. The sunshine is considered but
in Idle thing, yet light is produced only by Vi
braiions Of iuconceivable rapdity, and thus
sets all eyes 10 shaking everywhere, and by
other vibrations to the eye produces the effect
Of heat and color. The sunshine, too, lifts
the vapors and sets the wind in motion
! Nothing works harder than this same idle sun
shine. The wind, too, literally works itself to
death, for it must blow until it produces an
equilibrium, and that stops it. 1t cools the
tropics, carries vapors to find the rain, vcn,i-
lates the earth. and gives TO vegetation that eX-
| Crcisc without which it cannot thrive. For Il
| tree needs exercise as much us Il man. Wasn't
he who wished himself us idle as the wind
little in advance orhi< reckoning? There, too.
| is the lazy ocean, which does nothing but toll
| in its brd But look at the currents-ihe
Gulf Stream rushing along at the rate OF thr-
| ty miles an hour, with Il power which would
turn all the machinery of the globe with its
/ little finger. These ocean currents drive The
mighty iccbergs TO warmer seas, prevent the
whaler from from being frozen in, in the north
err ocean, carrying food for fishes thousand.
| Of miles, and prevent the cxccss OF salt in trop
! ical seas.
+ Going higher, TO organize forms, what ac
| tiviiy exists in plants? Every plant is as much
an instrument Of work as a wood-saw, and is
/
/ lecturer here described the circulation Of the
sap and its elaboration. in the leaves, into
starch, sugar. milk and iurpentine, and
/ the rep parative process by which ii sustaius the
entire plant. No wonder the plant sleeps al
night, after such a days work.
Rising to animal life, it is hardly necessary
/ ty say that every animal works for living
| The minnie insect on the leaf of a rose ger
unum, and the painted butterfly, who stems
always 10 play, the little creature which lives
At the !tom Of the deepest pits of the ocean
none of these can escape the great law Of
labor. 1h must all nork Or die. The Con
dor, to get his breakfast, must fly one hundred
and fly miles, carying from forty to seventy
pounds. What ovcr'askrd house, wife works
harder than this? The humming bird must
/ ply his wings at the rate Of three hundred vi
bratjous per minute-ard This Is hard work
This Whoe system of labor points to tho
need Of one higher worker Intelligent man.
Plants show this 10y the fact ll.al they are al
ways improved by cultivation. Man is placed
I on the earth as Il co-worIler with God. Yet
he comes far short of his duty OF all the
valuable metals he uses but few has not con-
quered all the powers of steam, electricity or
magnetism, nor discovered the us>s of all the
plants, which he enormously calls weeds. l.
is not only not respectable to be idle, but is
wicked The spider spinning It's web is
more faithful in the eye of Goa, tl,an lazy
man.