The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1869-10-15
MARIETTA GEORGIA, FRIDAY MORNING, OCTOBER IS 1869
The a}layiett1 gonrnal,
MARIETTA, GEORGIA.
Friday Morn. Ocs. rs, 1859.
THE LAW OF WORK AND PLAY.

People are in the habit of expanding
a vast amount of sympathy for the over
tasked children of toll, the drudges on
tropical plantation the weavers in fac
tories, the diggers in mines, the navvies
who grade railroads across continents.
But these are not the hardest workers in
world Brain has to pioneer for muscle
in every department of industry
Whitney had to lie awake nights study
ing out the construction of the cotton
gin, before million t4wny hands could
separate the seed from the fibre
Ericsson had to torture has brain to in
vent the monitors, before thousand
men, obcying his grand thought, went to
the furnace and the forge. Watt, and
Fulton, and Stephenson had to work out
the deep problems Of mechanical force,
before the lcgions of common men could
pillow oceans and penetrate continents
with steam travel. So, in all the vast
history of industrial lie by whose pro-
cess civilization has been carried for
ward the thinkers have been the chief,
and likewise the most unrecognizcd
martyrs. In the case of multitudes of
these, neither inward zeal, nor the de-
mands Of the world, would allow the
requisite measure Of repose and rccrca-
ton. But if any man has right to
what plaything his caprice may elect,
and twelve hours sleep out Of twenty
four, it is the man who drafts the pat
terms by which other men work. Blind
Tom plays the symphonies Of Becth-
oven, and grows fat like any other ami
NAL who has plenty to cat, and lives
wholly in the realm of instinct. But a
great brain had to make wcarisomc pill
grimages into the labyrinths Of harmony
in order to the mechanical movements
of those black fingers. And the world
will excuse Beethoven for having been
d nervous and pctulant hypochrondriac,
considering what a wonderful work he
achieved in the domain of creative art,
We have heard of the famous drives
of certain great railroad king after his
fast trotters, and the daily game Of whist
with which he forgets the veXatious
cares of the counting room. Sure y if
any man in America requires such sort
of safety valves, he does. Had he not
had them, doubtless he would have been
in his grave, or ayhap in ali insane
asylum, score of years ago. 1t would
be both interesting and suggestive to
look over the history Of literature, and
catalogue the toys Of great students, the
fiddle of Martin Luther, the fishing rods
of Walton and Paley, the dog and gun
of Wilson, the saddle horse and tent of
Scott, the tame harcs of Cowper, the
sail-boat of Keats and Byron, the fancy
farm of Webster, for even these sober and
practical institutions must be considered
playthings for the men who used them,
and the purposes for which they were
used.
The fundamental truth is, that work
and not play is the grand business of
life. And, moreover the quality and
quantity of his work shall prescribe the
measure of his recreativc privileges
1t is grave error which people indulge,
that money gives one an immunity from
toll, and permission of habitual loung
ing. Recreation is, in fact, an imPos-
siblity to a man who never puts faculty
on the stretch for any great purpose OF
personal culture and the advancement
of the world. What implement of hon
est work has that man rc-crcatcd who
never does anything but dose and play
from one years end to another? What
right has man to fish for trout, who
has never fished for souls? What right
has man to go to Chammounix or the
Rhine, who never has grown weary for
Just once, in some noble GRAND for the
worlds good Consider, likewise, as
have suggested, the quality Of mans
work, as bearing upon the measure of
rccreative privilege. A man who re-
tails dry goods or groceries, who makes
entries in the day book, who engages in
mechanical labor, can with average
health, work his eight hours day,
without personal damage, for three hun
drcd days in the year. But compel him
to the task Of original composition by
such scale of duty, and unless he is a
wholly exceptional instance of endnr-
ance, you will break him down in less
than six months. So with any other
branch of industry, which imposes tas ks
specially upon nervous force through the
great centre and source thercot.-J. Il.
Corning, in Tile Journal Of HealtA.
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