The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1873-02-27
50 90 PER YEAR.


In recent sermon the Rev. Henry Ward
beeeher discoursed ON the subject of labor
Us follows:
Every man should earn his own living.
do not say it is 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. 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 rave ruined 50 many young men. 1t
I Is not only necessary To earn our own liveli-
! hood, but we must rise with the sun in sum-
mer, and before it in winter, and work with
our hands. There is no degradation in labor.
I 1t eXalts the man. 1t was not disesteemed
/ in earlier days. Only i'm Greece and Rome
4 ii was despised because the Greeks and Ro-
mans owned slaves That nation to which |
We owe 50 much and from which we have
/ learned so much-the Jewish nation-al-
ways honored labor The Jews taught their
children some little craft, and they were not
drudges A drudge is man who labors
with his hands and has no mind to control !
nina, no conscience behind it, no manhood.
If were a cabinet maker, do you sup
pose could construct a cradle without sing 1
ing a lullaby all the time? Could l saw,
plane and rub; saw, plane and rub (imitat-
ing the movements of these tools), and not |
put my heart in the work? i'll did would |
be drudge. The builder is drudge who.
every time he drives nail, wonders where
he can get poorer and a cheaper one
Men tell MS that mans character may be
told by his working. l can tell you the
character of builder and architect of a
cold, big house That man would be heart
less and bloodless. But go into nice, warm,
coy house, and you would find out that the
man who built it was social, good man,
with heart and brains too.
Men do not like to labor, because the
worker ranks below the thinker That's a
democratic feeling. | say Pm 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, gfrth
not equal in virtue but all men are civilly
equal before the law. When a man says,
" I'm just rs good as any man." il may be
so, and it may not be so. When the univer-
sal man says so, it's lie
That has been the grand blundeT of the !
Communists and lnternationals. They want
ed all men equals with unequal means The &
most productive part of man is the animal q
part. A man shears a sheep, and there are
Ave hundred men in the same township who
can 90 the same thing. Then the wool Is
sent to the manufactory, 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 I
result of brains and education. I
In Ohio, when lived there / knew emf /
nently educated German gentlemen earning
a dollar a day breaking stones on a macada- {
mixed road, Measured by avocation they
were low, but they were thinkers, ranking /,
were honorable :
man who has been a hard worker all his I
life says to himself: Il have a smart boy /
I'll give him chances | never had. I'll give I
him good education. Yes I'll make law Y
yer out of him. Immoderate laughter. In
the month of June there will be 500, 900 bios {
SONS 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 300 professional men.
The great trouble is that men are more !
anxious to he rich than 10 be happy. Inever "
knew of q minister who warned his people I
about being extravagant who refused to re- b
ceive good salary. | never derided wealth, ]
never eNlIortod you about l.oinss economical, !
for you would just lief walk into my !
yard and say TO my cows, Oh, Attorneys,
be careful of your milk q
A man may be rich and yet be fool. OIL :
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 any b
thing else, has been the ruin of many young h
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. | venture to say that there are five !,
thousand young men here between twenty -
and thirty years of age who have nothing to n
do New York is full Of them. | do not n
wish TO he di-respectful but ask one of them O
if he can do n days work. He will answer s.
No Are you good on ship-board? No, I've
never been to sea? Can you make chair? q
No Are you a blacksmith No Are you a
No. j. there anything on Gods u
earth that you can do? No, not a thing.
Laughter Now, think, what can you do =
Well, I'm good bOok-keeper. Laughter. y
They can do nothing and can get nothing TO
do Not alone is this the case in New York /,
but in all the large cities of the Union. h
Thousands of young men would starve 20 p
death on "A hundred acres of land because
they couldn't raise corn. They would be $
houseless and homeless in a lumber yard =
barefooted with all the leather in the swamp =
at their command. They have abandoned =
work and want something nice and easy. :
think that the respectable German in his b
six by nine attic, pegging away at his last,
is much more respectable than the young e
man who left his fathers farm before he a
learned to work. You ought to 90 to my Il
house and see the number of applications 4
that are made to me daily. Why people o
must think that own Central Park, and !
Prospect Park and the Post Office, and the =
Custom House, and the Navy Yard. They 4
won't believe that I've no influence at Wash d
ington l sympathize with them and assist s,
them when | can. try to encourage them. b
Mr.. Beecher then addressed himself to
the wealthy members of his congregation,
and said: Even if You are worth a million
to-day, your son may yet be forced to beg .
MS bread because he can't work. Your
daughters cannot be chambermaids, or cooks,
D. washerwOmen-whats to become of them a
In one thing / would have you Judaized.
There is an old and true Jewish proverb
which says, He who brings up his child b
without trade, brings him up 10 steal"
The papers tell us Of people going to seek q
their fortunes in America It should be, q
work for their fortunes y
Mr.. Beecher closed with touching perOra- 3
ton, in which, speaking of the rising genera =
ton, he said "Let them he men who earn !,
their living by the sweat Of their brow and y
who can hold up their big hard hand, and say Il
they never took penny they did not earn" 81