Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1872-11-15

dishes, wash linen year after year, is degrad-
ing to the woman who has to do IL. Then il
must be degrading for the farmer to hoe
corn year after year, for the blacksmith to
make horse shoes, or the printer to set up
types, after these arts have been so mastered
as to have become simply mechanical. But
is it2 and if it is not in the case of the man,
why must IL be so in the case Of the woman
The fact is that when degradation attends
manual labor the fault is with the laborer
rather than with the labor II has been
said that shoemakers are almost always phi
osophers, and there is some truth in the
saying After their work becomes mainly
mechanical, through long habit, their minds
are free, while their hands perform the ac-
customed task, to reflect upon what they
have seen, heard and read, and, exercised in
this way, the mind and the heart are Guilt
waited and grow soundly and healthily in
proportion to the soundness and health Of
their original constitution. If tho mind has
mechanical turn, it may dwell upon aud
devise new methods Of doing the work the
hands are engaged upon and out of this in
the various avocations, grow all the wonder
full improvements Of the time. Thousands
study these matters that never make any
great inventions, but the study does them
good, nevertheless.
In the work of the household it may be the
same, and if it is not commonly so, that
fact is but proof that the primary training
of girls is more imperfect than that of boys.
brought up to believe, as the boys are, that
they mast earn their own living. They are
trained to dependence, and consequently be-
como dependents, with the ideas of depend
ents and but a slight feeling of independence,
without which labor is irksome and not be-
ing associated with the idea of independence,
as in the male mind, seems to be but badge
of degradation. Yet the degradation is not
in the labor, but in the mental condition Of
those who so regard it.
AS to the higher and lower classes of man.
ual labor, the all.wise aud bountitul Creator
manifestly proportions the amount Of each tc
the capabilities of the race. The simple forms
are most abundant because the great mass o.
mankind are adequate to no other. As thu
race advances, means of doing all kinds o
work will be devised requiring greater de
gree Of mental capacity for their execution
We see this process going on around US. L
is as evident on the farm as in the factory
) If it is not so manifest in the work of womel
as in men, the cause is simply in that sam
defective early training Of the sex, whicl
keeps them behind men in intellectual devel
opment and sense of responsibility and indie
pendence. The way to remedy this is t
bring up the girls as well as the boys t
lcOrk, and to expect to hUe by their work
not temporarily, until they can get hus
band, but all their lives. There is no fea
that they will be required to continue t
" drudge in any of the simple forms Of IL
dustry long after they develop capacity 70
any of the higher FORMS The demand 70
skilled labor is always, and always will b.
in excess of the supply, both for men an
women. The tools to him or her that ca
use them" will be the rule, and there is neV
;, er anything degrading in doing anything 20
can do, in the best possible way, until you
> ability to do something higher brings you tn
y opportunity to do it. Learn to labor an
~ to wait"