Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1867-09-26
The "Small Industries" in the South.

!. which exists of change in the oil
routines of occupation in the South
ern States, with a view to meet tn
changed circumstances of our people
10 some exteut, those invocation
have not fallen heedlessly by tn,
. wayside, and we find in numerou
cases disposition and willingness t.
shape the pursuits Of life in manne
to conform with the exigencies o
the times. But to effect a total trans
; formation in long established usaget
and settled habits is task which
even the lessons of experience and
the teachings Of philosophy some
times fail to accomplish within life,
time. Necessity being the mother Of
invention, forces those who would be
up and doing in the great battle OF
life, to adopt whatever available ex'
pedient they can. Yet, there are too
many others, who, after being baffled
and thwarted in their accustomed
undertakings, or in any new en-
deavor to "get along" supinely wait,
Micawber-like, for something else
to turn up" Or listlessly nope over
their condition, until at last they be-
come untitled for any active or USE
full employment.
1t has been great fault Greater
now than ever, in the labor economy
Of the South to "despise the day of
small things" and to treat with con.
temptuons disregard the homely
though canny Scotch axiom, that
"many mickle make muckle."
Time was, when prosperity and
abundance We're so general as to af-
ford some excuse for this; but our
people have now to accommodate
themselves to circumstances and to
make virtue OF that necessity
which demands closer attention to
the minor avocations of life. Where
a thousand or a hundred acres of
land cannot be thrifty cultivated
and the diguifed title Of planter can
not be maintained, twenty, or a dozen,
or five acres, might be successfully
titled, and the tiller none the worse
off for being classed as an honest,
upright and industrious turner.
Where mechanical, commercial, or
other honorable callings cannot be
sustained on large scale, they
might with humber and less aspir-
ing pretensions be made to succeed !; |
and so throughout the long list OF
physical and mental occupations
upon which mankind are made to de.
pend for livelihood As surely as
water will seek it's level, SO will our !
people eventually have to shape their |
ends according to their means and
resources. False pride will have to
be flung away and all who may be
vainly striving to soar with the ca
gle will be constrained to fly lower,
if instead of undertaking more than
they can accomplish, they find them
selves suddenly cut short in their
career, and reduced to as bad a con-
dition as those who by undertaking
enjoy the unenviable char
acter of loafers and idle consumers.
A contemporary who has written
sensibly on the subject of "cutting
ones cloth according to ones pat
tern," and with view to intoxicating
a new theory in the science of in
iustry among his people, correctly
observes:
We have got to come to small in.
lustries-will have to get rag pick
ers, who subserve a good purpose.
These aids to civilization may not
have much wealth or influence, but
hey have stomachs and mouths, and
have therefore to consume food, and
80 they necessarily add to the gen {
sral aggregate of the wealth of any
within which they dwell. t
In this Southern country there
has been more unthrift than in any {