The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-05-10
The Mechanics Lyceum.

The Mechanics Lyceum.
The workingmen Of Charleston ore labor
inc in earnest to improve their position.
Already they have numbers, manual skill
and native intelligence. Let them dig deep
in the mines Of. knowledge; let them polish
the mind as they sharpen the implements OF
their calling; let them explore the broad
fields of literature and science-and assu-
redly, they will dignity themselves and their
handiwork and win the most valued prizes
of rank, fame and fortune These working
men have fair start in the long race OF life.
They are protected in the enjoyment Of every
civil and political right, and they can pro-
tect themselves wherever the law may fail
them. Prejudice and intolerance are pow
erless to harm them, and the Lyceum which
they have just established is an evidence
that they are resolved to increase their power
by making mind and muscle toll and strive
together.
By establishing the Mechanics Lyceum
the workingmen of the City OF Charleston
hope to give the young men of the city, the
mechanics and the workingmen, something
more than bare education. This, for the
most part, they already have. At the Ly-
ceum they will be informed of the progress
made in every department Of science. All
the latest inventions in tools and labor
saving machines will be brought under their
notice. The Lyceum will enable every
workingman to show what stuff there is in
him. Cooperative enterprises will be fos-
tered and encouraged, and, in general, the
workingmen will be taught how to econo-
mize capital and labor, and how to use most
effectively the force which they possess. All
this is lucs1ly set forth in the preamble and
constitution of the Lyceum, printed in The
NEWS of yesterday. So far, the institution
is in its infancy, but, if it be supported as it
deserves to be, this city, in the course of
few years, will have a Lyceum Of the highest
value to the people Of the State Its infu-
ence will be felt in every direction, and the
workingmen, rising rapidly in wealth and
in the social scale, will do good service in
liberalizing and energizing the State, and in
giving strength and stability to the new
South Carolina.
And who shall say that this is predicting
too much? Is the workingman Of Charles
ton less vigorous, less intelligent or less in
dustrious than the workingmau of England
or Ireland or Germany? Our workingmen
are staunch sons of sturdy sires, and looking
across the broad Atlantic they find an hun
dred lessons of confidence and hope. Jere-
my Taylor, the most poetical OF divines,
and Lord Tenterden, one of the most dis
tinguished of the Lord Chief Justices of
England, came from the barber's shop.
Shakespeare himself was wool-comber.
The class Of day-laborerS gave rise to Burns,
the poet Ben Jonson, the learned dramatist,
and Hugh Miller, the geologist. lingo
Jones, the architect, and John Gibson, the
sculptor, were journeymen carpenters. Shoe
makers have given as Admiral Sir Cloudes-
lev Shovel, and Robert Bloomfield, the poet.
Cardinal Woolsey was the son of a butcher,
Bunyan was tinker, and Michael Faraday
was the son Of blacksmith. The father of
Gregory VII was carpenter, Of Sextus V
shepherd, and of Adrian vi a poor barge
man. But enough of these. The United
States is rich in examples of men who have
raised themselves, by strenuous individual
application, to the first places in the COM
monwealth. And the workingmen of Charles
ton have among their number some who
can, if they will, achieve distinction in any
walk Of life, and all Of them can by steady
working improve their position and that OF
the children who come after them. Had
riches been necessary to mans highest cul-
t.re, the world would not be so largely in
debted to those who sprang from the ranks.
Poverty, indeed, may be converted into a
blessing, rousing man to that struggle
with the world, in which the right minded
and true hearted find strength and conf
dence and triumph.
Workingmen Of Charleston think OF these