Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-12-12
Beecher ON Labor.

I Beecner on LaDOr.
IN recent sermon the Rev. Henry
| Ward Beecher discoursed on the subject
of labor as follows:
Every man should earn his own living
l do not say it is a misfortune to be born
rich, but do say that of one hundred
men born with money and one hundred
men born without it, the chances to find
virtue and happiness are better in the
last hundred. He who is born in life to
rise early to work to earn his living is the
happy man A man who works is
healthier and happier than he who does
not, and he is, moreover, debarred from
those temptations which spring from the
possession of wealth, and those pitfalls
which have ruined so many young men.
1t is not only necessary to earn our own
livelihood, but we must rise with the sun
in summer, and before it in winter, and
work with our hands. There is no degra-
dation in labor. 1t eXalts the man. 1t
was not disesteemed in earlier days.
| Only in Greece and Rome it was despised
because the Greeks and Romans owned
| slaves. That nation to which we owe so
much and from which we have learned so
much-the Jewish nation-always honor
ed labor The Jews taught their children
some little craft, and they were not
drudges. A drudge is a man who labors
with his hands and has no mind to con-
troll him, no conscience behindit, no man.
hood.
If I were a cabinet maker, do you sup
pose I could construct cradle without
singing lullaby all the time Could /
saw, plane and rub; saw, plane and rub
Gmitating the movements of these tools),
and not put my heart in the work =? If
did I would be drudge. The builder is
a drudge who, every time he drives nail,
wonders where he can get poorer and a
cheaper one.
Men tell us that mans character may
be told by his working. 1 can tell you
the character of builder and architect
of cold, big house That man would be
heartless and bloodless. But go into a
nice, warm, cozy house, and you would
find out that the man who built it was a
social, good man, with heart and brains,
too.
Men do not like to labor, because the
worker ranks below the thinker. That's
democratic feeling. say I'm just as
good as any other man, because all men
are equal. beg your pardon; all men
are not equal. They are not equal in
size, height, girth; not equal in virtue;
but all men are civaily equal before the
law. When a man says, I'm just as
good as any man." it may be so, and it
may not be so. When the universal man
says so, it's lie.
That has been the grand blunder of the
Communists and Internationals. They
wanted all men equals with unequal
means The most productive part of
man is the animal part. A man shears a
sheep, and there are five hundred men in
the same township who can do the same
thing. Then the wool is sent to the
mandatory, but there will not be five
hundred men who can weave the fine
cloth. The result is that the man who
shears gets one dollar a day, while the
weaver gets three or four dollars a
day. This is the result of brains and
education.
In Ohio, when 1 lived there, I knew
eminently educated German gentlemen
earning dollar a day breaking stones on
a macadamized road. Measured by avo-
cation they were low, but they were
thinkers, ranking higher-they were hon
orable.
A man who has been hard worker all
his life says to himself: 81 have smart
boy I'll give him chances l never had.
I'll give him good education. Yes, I'll
make lawyer out of him." Immoderate
laughter. In the month of June there
will be 500, 900 blossoms on every apple
tree. There will be about 800 apples,
and the remainder will drop to the ground
Out of 500, 900 candidates there will only
be 800 professional men.
The great trouble is that men are more
anxious to be rich than to be happy.
never knew minister who warned his
people about being extravagant who re-
fused to receive good salary. I never
derided wealth, never exhorted you about
| hn1r -nv111
lief walk into my yard and say to my
cows, ''Oh, Attorneys, be careful of your
milkI'
A man may be rich and yet be fool.
OF one hundred who have wealth, but one
knows how to use it. The insane notion
that if a man only had wealth he wouldn't
want anything else, has been the ruin of
many young men. Sudden wealth and
immense wealth are the dream of many
men in cities who have left their farms
and work shops to come here. l venture
to say that there are five thousand young
men here between twenty and thirty years
OF age who. have nothing to do. New
York is full of them. do not wish to be
disrespectful, but ask one of them if he
can do days work. He will answer, No
Are you good on ship-board? No, I've
never been to sea? Can you make chair
No. Are you blacksmith? No, Are
you carpenter? No. Is there anything
on Gods earth that you can do? No, moi
a thing. Laughter Now, think, what
can you do9 Well, Pm good book
keeper. Laughter. They can do moth
ing and can get nothing to do. Not
alone is this the case in New York, but
in all the large cities of the Union.
Thousands of young men would starve
/ to death on hundred acres of land be.
cause they couldn't raise corn. They
would be houseless and homeless in a
lumber yard-barefooted with all the
J leather in the swamp at their command.
They have abandoned work and want
something nice and easy. 1 think that
the respectable German in his six by nine
, attic, pegging aws.y at his last, is much
more respectable than the young man
who left his fathers farm before he
learned to work. You ought to go to my
house and see the number of applications
that are made to me daily. Why people
must think that 1 own Central Park, and
, Prospect Park, and the Post Office, and
/. the Custom House, and the Navy Yard
They won't believe that I've no influence
at Washington. I sympathize with them
and assist them when can. try to en-
courage them.
Mr.. Beecher then addressed himself to
} the wealthy members of his congregation
{ and said: Even if you are worth mill
, ion to-day, your son may yet be forced to
, beg his bread because he can't work.
: Your daughters cannot be chamber.