Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-08-31
I!;E RUTLAND HERALD
The Estimate of Labor in Mooofn
society.

All labor including every species OF IN
d,s,rv wbether physical or intellectual,
labor of the brains as well as OF the hands,
"a honorable. Society is to great extent
artificial in its construction,T and raises
false standards OF rank and distinction
The glitter and dazzle of the surface are
often esteemed above real solid worth. In
the arbitrary graduation OF the social
scale, manual labor is barely placed with
in the range of respectability. z Although
It is not absolutely disreputable for the
poor to ditch and delve, but then it ia
considered in some quarters decidedly in
consistent with gentility and refinement.
This is the conclusion at which all OBJ
servers arrive in looking over the sphases
of society at this period.
We have in this country an almost in.
exhaustable supply of fertile land which
may be bought for trifing price, and at
the same time thousands and tens OF
thous ands of able-bodied men are crowded
and starving in professional life and vo'
cations that do not require manual labor
They think themselves born to do some
thing more genteel than dig the soil
raising wheat and potatoes.
The most beautiful girls of these mod
ern days generally marry worthless tops
because they consider themselves too
great prizes for industrious mechanics
and plain honest farmers wives. Too late
they discover that soft heads and soft
hands are not very productive OF the com
forts and conveniences of life. They
bite at the ba it of gentility, but swallow
the book Of poverty.
Many whom stern necessity compels t.
work for a livelihood contrive to do
covertly, and many more appear to b
ashamed Of the honest vacations OF labor
A lady, with her broom in hand, dodge
back and apologies, as If engaged In some
disgraceful act. The milliner and dress
m .ker who ply their needles, well nigh tt
the midnight hour, shrink from the! ser
vile task of carrying bundle through
the street, though containing the work o
her own hands, and the factory girl artfully
oonceals her dinner basket from sight
These apparently trifing facts indicate
the current of public sentiment, as dt
straws the course of the wind.
Do those who thus estimate the dignity
Of labor ever ask themselves, What il
life ~ Life is but action. And what is
action without an object to accomplish
And how can the object be accomplished
unless the action be methodical and prop
erly directed What is such actor
hut labor-the working of those power
oorrelative to the purpose to be effected
If, therefore, labor is undignified and un'
creditable, so then is life, which, in it:
best phases, is but the exponent of labor
undignifed and mental. The Importance
of anything is philosophically ascertained
and justly estimated by its operations,
it's effects and influences. That which
supplies the most of the wants and bene'
fits the individual should be most highly
priced.
MoQern eOOiety patS laise SStiIhatoo
upon the responsibility of labor, especially
that which 10 termed manual labor. The
generations as they pass are educated in
these false views of life and its purpose.
These low views of the object of our being
are degenerating the race into mere slaves
of fashion and so CALLED roepeotabi and
loosening The restraints that should sur
round the family, leading to foppish and
frivolous estimates Of the real life work
marked out for intelligent beings to pur-
sue. 1t is high time that fathers and
mothers consider the tendency OF the
times, and the sordid Influences amid
which their children are being educated
in society, and endeavor to elevate the
tone and standard of their own liveF, and
inculcate sentiments that will teach those
growing up around them higher views of
life, aud thus endeavor to correct the false
estimates put upon labor In these latter
DAVIS by those who seek and know nc
happiness outside of tho wosld's great
maelstrom, fashionable society.