The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-07-10
The Dawn of a Better Day."
From the Natchitoches Republican.

The large number of young mel
thrown out of employment will hav,
one good effect. 1t will stop the rusl
of young men from the country to thu
towns and cities. It will teach parent
the necessity of making their children
farmers, OF learning them some gO0(
trade. Farmers can always find EN-
plOyment and but few Industrious me
chanics are ever out of employment.
! THE DAY HAS PASSED
when any class can turn their backs
upon mechanics, for all are now labor.
ers alike. The time has come when the
full perception and development Of this
truth has impressed itself upon society
The old prejudice which has hitherto
fOstered the pride of professional pre-.
eminence and blOated mushroom aris-
tOcracy, based upon wealth, has been
battered down and Obliterated, and me-
chanical pursuits and the laboring class
| es have received an impulse that has
driven them into the ascendent. Men
have found motives for making
FEWER LAWYERS AND DOCTORS
out of their children, and more farmers
and mechanics. Tile country wants
the men who can build up the nation,
who can convert the secret forces of na-
ture into the living, working forces of
practical mechanism, and the toiling
masses OF the hills and valleys who can
subdue, want and scatter plenty all over
the land. Whilst society recognizes these
facts, and is adopting them, and con-
forming its usages to them, cores
pondlng duty presses upon
THE LABORING CLASSES.
They have q new destiny before them,
and its first demands are cultivation
elevation. It says to them: Throw
your whole mind into your vocation !;
improve it by study, penetrate it by
philosophy, and make yourselves learn
ed. Work, but you will have ample
time to store your minds with knowledge
that will not only render you useful in
your vocatiOns, but will dignity your
calling, and place it still higher in the
respect of mankind where God first
placed it, when he said: SIN the sweat
of thy brow shalt thou earn thy bread"
: The above taken from q copy of the
New Orleans Bulletin had reference to
the heimnumerable lOungers who thronged
Canal street, and whose sole occupation
was ostensibly to gaze into the faces of
the throng of passers on the pavements.
The truths uttered are however none
the less applicable to every town of any
size, throughout the State. 1t is abso-
lutely astounding to see healthy, strong
hmbed and muscular young men id1ing
away the precious moments of their
vigorous existence as if life had no high
aims, no noble aspirations. This ten
dency to idleness, to live at the expense
OF tOlllng parents, or worse still upon
tile hard earnings of a mother and sis
ters to abhOr with contempt and dis
gust, any kind of manual labor has been
the bane and curse of Southern So
ciety. .fs l.. ."s@ ''- t...s.s s:4=
There still is a large class who re-
tain the old aristocratic pride that be-
longed to the wealthy slave owners,
who consider themselves far superior
to the mechanics and laborers in the
land and deem it contamination to soil
their soft palms with the stains of man
ual work. Yet there is a cry for more
workmen. Broad acres are lying idle
and growing up in rank weeds. The
carpenters shop, the blacksmith and
wheelwright establishment, every me-
chanical industry and especially ag-
are demanding laborers.
Society in the slave States was based
Upon a moneyed power and built up
bloated aristocracy as ruinOus to the
best interests of the country, as it was
enerVating and destructive to the yig-
OTOus growth of true manhood. It lis
and brighter when true nobility of soul
and elevation of character are properly
recognized, and placed where they best
belong the men who follow
mechanical pursuits and are classed
among the laboring population of the
country. No man who has brains, en-
ergy, pluck and perseverance need want
in this prolific land. There is always
of work for all who are will
ing to pull off their coats, roll up their
sleeves and do not scruple about the
kind of work they may have to do. We,
f0TsOne, have no sympathy for the "maw-
kish, senseless sentimentality," which
restrains young men from labor because
they deem work degrading to their sta
tus of respectfully, One thing they
may rest assured of those 4UhO do 1C0rk
have no respect for, no confidence in
these gaudy butterflies and consuming
drones of society. This class may feel
perfectly convinced that their sneers, at
the sun n-broWned faces, sooty and tan
ned skins of the honest laborers and
artizans, are but so many blunted shafts
hurled against q SteeI-encased citadel.
They are the mushrooms, the toad
stool growth, the kid-glove charlatans
Of society, whose respectability consists
in the fashionable cut of their clothes,
doubtless unpaid for, and the few pal
try dollars which their pockets contain:
anat n94g 5BGf geftlemab o ae Che the Born man a
sian," the glory of nations greatness,
the trusted official and the honest citi-
zen come from that class who are call
ed mechanics, and who earn their bread
IN the sweat of their broWs.