Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-04-16
Assistant Adjutant- General.

What Gentleman may do with his Hands
There is vast deal of idleness in the South
A large number Of our people are trying to live
by their wits; large number are only nominal
ly engaged in business, lounging and dawdlins
through each week large number are roam
ing loose waiting for something to turn up. W.
doubt if one half of our population are engaged
in real hard work. The absolute necessaries o.
life cost SO little in temperate climate where
land is abundant and rich, and the population
sparse, that it is not difficult to live on hal
work. The production of the South, we doub
not, if all the muscle and brain in the South
were fully taxed, and the labor properly direct
ed, could be just about doubled. There ale
young men pretending to practise law or physic
young men instructing a half dozen pupils
young men selling few yards ofriband per day
young men who have no business there at col
lege, young men farming GALL of whom ough
to be differently occupied There are young
men clerking it in hotels and banking companies
where there is not full employment for them
There are young ladies by scores-engaged in
reading novels, or entertaining beaux. There
| are all sorts of agencies-ten thousand shifts tG
live, no matter how, so that it is not by na0nata
labor. In word the market of head work il
glutted in the South-while the hammer, the
plane, the trowel, the hoe, the axe are crying
for stalwart arms to grasp them.
K X
We shall not prosper in the South until al
these folks go to work, nor until labor with the
hands is properly estimated. How does the
mere fact Of being lawyer or farmer or 6
banker make a man more of gentleman
than if he were carpenter? Is he more honesti
Is he more refined on this account? Does stick
ing quill behind the ear refine man? Does
dirtying the hands dirty the mind? Give us a
blacksmith with the same education and the
same moral worth, and he is in the full sense
of the term as much of gentleman as a pro
lessor in college or an Episcopal clergyman
1t is not the trade that pulls the man down
The reason why the professor or the clergyman
is thought to be entitled to higher social pc.
sition is because generally he has more educa
ton And cannot follower of one of the me-
chanic arts be an educated man? What was
BENJAMIN Franklin? What was Hugh Miller
What is the President of the United States
And now we come to the point: let us expel all
these senseless ideas about being professional
gentlemen, and let us try to make useful c,ti
GEMS let us teach cur children that there is nc
nobler character than an Adam Bede; nothing
better than an honest, true hearted, faithful
hand-worker-wh loves his Calling and is not
ashamed of it, and who would rather lose money
on Job than to turn out an unwOrkmanlike
article, even where he knows that no one would
ever find out his unfaithfulness We say to the
F. f. V. s of the State, Put your boys to work,
send them out to make brick and beat horse
shoes-and they winot lose their gentility. They
will get the applause Of all right-minded men
and they will be more apt, in many cases, to
make money than if they were giving calomel
along muddy turnpikes, Or bounding some poor
creature from court to court with #. ta.'s and
delivery bonds There is more money, as a
general thing, in a good trade in the South than
in learned profession Didy III ever knew half
dozen rich doctors Did you ever know dozen
rich lawyers? Did you ever know a rich school
teacher? In this very town there is money to
be made by any persevering, business young
man who will master brcklaying Or the car
penter's business or the timers business; or
the science of drainage; or gardening. So that
trade is not incompatible with wealth. Is it
incompatible with knowledge? We have al
ready alluded to Hugh Miller and others
Charlottesville Chronicle