Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-04-04
Beecher on work.


Rev. Henry Ward Beecher lectured
in Boston Wednesday night, on ola
bor." Among other things this is
what he said
In view of the dignity Of work,
say that all men i'm this country
ought to be taught to work with
their hands. That they should be
taught to think, that their brain
should be educated is to be inferred.
But | hold, since work is digGiied
and noble, creative and beneicent in
its uses, that American education
should always include in it a suffi-
Gent training to make every person
= hand worker as well as a brain
worker.
The Jews have a proverb that he
who brings up his children without a
trade, brings them up TO steal. l am
half a Jew on that point. II is GER
tain that a boy is neglected of his
parents who does not know how to
work, and feels above work. when
ever you see a man whose duty it is
to work, who feels above his work,
you may be sure that man is not fit
to go any higher, for nc man is
ashamed to do that which God puts
him to do, The be a fit instrument to
do the divine work i'll this world.
There is no feeling so pee liarly
unAmerican as shame of work. 1t is
a foreign vice; it is vulgar; it has
no business here. The man who
does not know how to work, is the
man who ought to be ashamed the
man who knows how ought to be
proud of it. 1t is noble for q man to
carry himself up. Any man who ia
herits wealth is like a Ia who
breaches his fathers sermons
Laughter and applause. If one in
herits wealth he may excusehimselt
for being ashamed of work. l have
noticed that men who are born
wealthy are seldom troubled with
that shame. They are usually men
who have good sense in the matter of
work, and are quite willing them
selves to toll when it is proper.
Every American child should know
how to use his hands ingeniously.-
No American boy is educated, nobody
deserves the honorable %appellation
of yankee" who cannot use the AK,
the spade, the plow; who cannot
yoke and unyoke oxen, harness and
drive q team, who has not sufficient
knowledge Of tools to perform any
common act of necessity.
A true Yankee ne7er sees anything
done that he does not steal the trade
with his eyes, and imagine how he.
would do it himself at a pinch and
improve upon it. He will do any
thiDg-sew on buttons. shave a sick
man, cook a beet-staek, write a SER
mon, listen to one, or any other
drudgery hat society may impose
upon him This fertility and facility
in work digniies the American, and
universal thrift follows universal in
dustry and ingenuity.
This necessity and propriety of
work has peculiar re!a ions to us in
the growing exigencies of our civili-
cation, for we stand at a time when
the household is displaced from one
tendency and state Of society, and
has not fairly settled upon another.
When service was a class necessity,
then the household was blessed in
faithful servants; and when all from
the bottom TO the top of society shall
be thoroughly intelligent, then subor-
dination of work will give to us again
useful and trustworthy assistants
But we are living at a period when
work aspires, but has not attained ;
and the result is that in every house
bold complaints are uttered of the
difficulty of procuring work.
The best remedy that l "a pro
pound is, to go back TO the doctrine
and practice OF our mothers and sis
tiers. | remember the time when the
mOraipg woke with the mothers
voice-the sweetest bell that ever
rang at the stairs to call the children
up, when the table was spread by her
hands or her daughters and when,
sometimes, the boys We're put to the
eame task /; nd all through the morn
ing still she toiled ard sang and con-
versed upon themes worthy of wo-
manhood, Christian womaUhood /;
and when the noon meal was cleared
away, and the bright afternoon sun
poured its full light upon the door
yard and the kitchen. mothers and
sisters sat reading or sewing and
after the transient evening meal, The
lamp sitting on the table, the hearth
stone glowing Cf it was winter again
she gathered around her CIRCLE
Those were the days when there was
health among women, and a virtue
and womanhood of which we have no
occasion TO be ashamed, even in these
days, among our mothers and our sis
tiers; and if there was more work in
the household today, l think there
wonld be fewer complaints against
foreign servants, and fewer COM
plants for home doctors.-GLaughter
and applause.
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