The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1867-06-06
What Gentleman may do with his
Hands.

lldluo.
There is a vast deal of idlencss in the
South. a large number of our people
are trying to live by their wits; a large
number are only nominally engaged in
business, lounging and dawdling through
each week; large number are roaming
loose, waiting for something to turn up.
We doubt if one-half of our population
are engaged in real hard work The alb
solute necessaries of life cost so little in a
temperate climate, where land is abund-
ant and rich, and the population sparse,
that it is not difficult to live on half work.
The production of the South, we doubt
not, if all the muscle aud brain in the
South were fully taxed and the labor
properly directed, could be just about
doubled.
There are young men pretending to
practice law or physic; young men in
structing half dozen pupils; young men
selling few yards of ribbon per day;
young men who have no business there
at college; young men +" farming" all of
whom ought to be differently occupied
There are young men clerking it in ho-
tells and banking companies where there
is not full employment for them. There
are young ladies by scores engaged in
reading novels, or entertaing beaux.-
There are all sorts of agencies, ten thou
sand shifts to live, no matter how, so that
it is not by manual labor In word, the
market of head-work is glutted in the
South, while the hammer, the plane, the
trowel, the hoe, the axe, are crying for
stalwart arms to grasp thcm.
The idea is that trade is not just the
thing for youg man who considers him
self as good as anybody. 1t is thought a
better thing to be jack leg lawyer, or to
murder people with u doctors diploma, or
to weigh butter, than to build house, or
make sewing machine, or construct a
steam engine. The agent of somebody's
VEGETABLES pills is thought more eligible
match for your daughter than the man
who prints newspaper or book. So it
is foolish and often fatal pride which
made thousands shrink from the mechanic
arts; and those very men who, by life
of honest industry, have secured high
position in the community, and a respect
able competence for their families, turn
their backs upon their occupations, and
trim their sons out for something that
will not soil their white hands
Farming" in the South is the most
prolific source of idleness, for we have
few towns. In all directions you meet
not very handsomely dressed young gen
tlemen on horseback, who inform you that
they are :" farming.s 1t is a vague, float
ing term that means, perhaps, strictly,
that they live in the country, and may be
overlooking hand apiece. They have a
traditional idea that the farmer must con-
fine himself to head work They sit on
the fence until an early dinner, watching
a one-horse plow, and come to court, read
the market reports in the Saturdays
Chronicle-and artlessly think they be-
long to the great agricultural fraternity
and rail at the freedmen for being SO
lazy. The first thing you know this
young fellow gets married, and has to
borrow a clean shirt to go to the wedding.
We shall not prosper in the South un-
til all these folks go to work, nor until Ia
Dor with hands is properly estimated
Charlottesville { Fa) Chronicle.