Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1873-11-11
NUMBER 6.
The Dignity of Labor.


From the Oct. Number Maryland farmer.l
Labor is the great law Of Gods Universe, and
ever since the transgression Of the divine law
the stern decree went forth-''In the sweat of
thy brow shalt thou eat bread all the days OF
thy life" We read the great law of labor IN
the physical world. The earth is ever making
her revolutions upon her turning axis. Geo
logical formations are ever going on In the
depths of the earth as well as In the mineral
kingdoms the streams are ever flowing the
rivers and oceans are ever in motion while the
silent stars ever shining in the hour OF night
These physical truths, taken with the divine
law, all teach US that we must work-that we
must learn to labor and to wait for the good re-
suits that will be reaped hereafter.
The young man as he stands at lifes vesti-
bule asks himself In what department shall l
labor? | am ambitious, and want a wreath of
worldly glory to entwine around my brow. An
other will say: | don't want to till the soil. but
my highest ambition is to get behind some coun-
ter in a city or country store, and then l shall
realize all of my highest hopes But alas ma
ny are the failures of this glove handed-race.-
Among our young men. both in Maryland and
Virginia. there seems to be too much shrink
ing from the cultivation of the soil, as well as
from mechanical pursuits, engendered by the
false notion that there is something OF humilia-
ton attached to it. Now this is all wrong IN
point of fact and principle. My young friends,
you who are starting in business, l ask you to
pause and consider the great honor ard digni-
ty Of labor. Who, | ask, are the milionaires
of the land? They are those who have COM
menced life without dime, and fought the bat
tie of life with the weapons of energy and hon.
est TOLL and have won the victory. Wander
bilt com menced bis fortune by rowing people
| across the Hudson In boat at ten cents apiece;
now he is worth seventy-fve millions. a. L.
Stewart, as bundle carrier now he is worth
seventy-fve hundred thousand dollars. Tom
| Scott, the railroad king, at three dollars week
as railroad hand aud Thompson, the Presi-
dent of the great Pennsylvania Central used to
carry the surveyors chain over the very road
In which he now has millions of interest. Who,
L ask, have been our greatest statesmen and
| philosophers They are those who have won
their laurels of fame by hard and earnest labor.
They were farmers, tanners, saddlers, black
smiths, carpenters, and printers. The names
of Newton, Fulton, Franklin, and others, will
readily occur to you, who will live forever up
on the historic page. Let US consult the sacred
record and what an example OF the great dig
nifty of labor is presented before US. Paul was
a tent-maker, Cain tiller of the soil, Abel
keeper of sheep, and Christ, the worlds Re-
deemer, carpenter. Sons of the South,
awake Throw away false pride walk forth
into the fields already smiling to greet your
coming drive the team a-held; sing merrlly
along the furrow as you turn up the stubborn
| glebe and genial harvest time will crown your
store with plenty.
| ADoMEsTIC TRAGEDY IN DANBURY.-When
woman puts three mackerel to soak over night
| in dish pan, whose sides are eight inches
high aud leaves the pan on a stairway, she has
accomplished her mission and should go hence.
| This was what Division street woman did
lately. She filled the pan at the pump and
then left it standing on the steps of the stoop
while she went into the next house to see how
many buttons would be required to go down
the front of redin-gote. And mighty i'm
portant affair that was, to be sure. And there
| was her husband tearing through the house IN
search of handkerchief, aud not finding it, of
course And then he rushed out into the yard,
wondering where On earth that woman could
| be, and started down the steps without seeing
the pan, or even dreaming that any one could
be so idiotic as to leave it there. OF course he
stepped on it or, at least, that is the supposl-
ton, as the neighbors who we're brought out by
the crash that followed saw Mortified man,
and high dish ran, and three very democrat
| lied mackerel shO0tiug across the garden aud
smashing down the shrubbery And he was a
nice SIGHT, was that unhappy man, when they
got him on his feet. There WASH dry thread
on him, and his hair was full of bits of macker-
| ell, and one Of bis shoulders was out of joint,
|
back, aud he appeared to be out of his head.
He was carried in the house by some of the
men and laid on bed, while others went after
| the doctor, and sixteen women assembled In the
| front room and talked in whisper about the
inscrutabIe ways of Providence, and what
warning his was to people who never looked
where they were going--Donb"'y Ne'os.
AN ENTHUSIASTIC CHoIe,-In the Congre-
gationalist writer, who evidently hath not
music in his soul and is not moved by concord
of sweet sounds, relates what he calls AN Incl
| dent :"
A: recent Sunday service the organist did
not so much as begin bis voluntary until the
preacher had entered; just the time when he
ought to have ended 1t. And he played, and
| played, and played, until Dr. JOS Parker's sly
observation about hearing considerable organ"
| in America came to mind dozen times The
interminaby long voluntary finally had an end,
In respectable short anthem by the choir. 1t
was fifteen minutes after the appointed time
when the minister rose to pray. Being SEN
sible as we'll as a pious man, he prayed briefly,
hnt no sooner had he said Amen, than up struck
the organ a second time IN a response, which
seemed as if it would never be concluded A
gain the organst played and played and played,
as if, one would think, the congregation had
gathered solely to hear him. And when, at
last, he did finish, and the minister had sue
ceeded in reading short passage from the
Bible, tenor singer took the floor and proceed
ed with the performance of recltative, which
we think must have been in the mind of that
musical gentleman of Richmond, Va, when he
prayed "Oh Lord we thank Thee that thou
hast put new song in our mouth; it goes tee
d!edum, teedledee" After the limber-voieed
tenor had finished his teedledum, but not until
the patience of the congregation had become
quite exhausted, the meek and helpless minis
ter was permitted to begin his sermon.
THE CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN He is above
a mean thing. He cannot stoop to a mean
fraud. He invades no secret in the keeping of
another. He betrays no secret confded to his
keeping He never struts in borrowed plu-
mage. He never take selfish advantage of our
mistakes. He uses no ignoble weapons In con-
troversy. He never stabs in the dark. He is
ashamed of iDuendoes. He is not one thing to
mans face and another behind bis back. If
by accident he comes in possession of his neigh
bors councils, he passes upon them an act of
instant oblivion. He bears sealed packages
without tampering with the wax. Papers not
intended for his eye, whether they futter at the
I windows or lie open before him In unguarded
exposure, are sacred to him. He invakes no
privacy of others, however the sentry sleeps
Bolts and bars, locks and keys, hedges and
pickets, bonds and securities notice to tres