The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-12-24
The Mechanical Arts an Element of Ciyiliza.
4. ton.

In all ages of the world the people excelling
| in the mechanic arts have been accounted the
most civilized, refined and prosperous. There
! can be no better guage of nations civilization
! than that inde1ed upon the scale Of its mechan-
! ic progress and proficiency. If ita inventive
brain is active; If its cunning hand is busy !;
| if it's work shops are ringing with the cherry
! sound of labor; if its factories arc filled with
| the whirr of tireless machinery; if the echo of
its hills are alive to the sound of the thunder
of the rattling train if the waters of its rivers
lakes, and seas are upheaved and set to dancing
by the ponderous wheels of the steamer; if its
palaces lift their proud heads to the smiling
heavens if its gardens and its lawns laugh un-
der the guardian care of ingenious hands, and
its mountain streams run busy with their native
yigor, chained and utilized by the intelligence
cf man-that nation may be called prosperous,
may be called great and grand.
England has been tauntingly called nation
of work shops and shop-keepers, and no better
key could be given to the secret of England's
greatness than this.
Her powers lies in the subtle brain of her ar
tisans. 1t is her mills, her foundrics, her work
shops, that have builded her prosperity, filling
her land with intelligence and refinement, and
covering the ocean with her ships.
All the monuments of her pristine glory and
grandeur stand visible monuments of the ar
tist hands of her mechanics. st. Paul, the
proud boast of the grandest city on the globe,
pays its humble tribute to the genius OF Sir
Christopher Wren all its feudal halls, its tow
ering palaces, its abbeys and its castles pro-
claim the handiwork of its artisans.
So, too with the nations of the past; all that
is left of their material existence, the only evil
dence of their being, are the works of their me-
chancs. The mighty kings of Thebes are gone,
their bones are crumbled, and are as dry as
summers dust, and their glory is forgotten, but
the work of their people yet stands, and the ge-
Mus of their artisans is enshrined in the temple
of Luxor.
All that we know of their civilization is
found in what remains of their handicratt. The
excavations of Pompeii tell of the luxury and
refinement of that proud city. The evidences
of mechanical skill, and the presence OF artist
ic ingenuity, tells US at once that the civiliza-
ton of its people was perfect of its age.
All that we know, except from tradition, and
even that is handed down to us through the
instrumentality of mechanic art, OF ancient
Greece and of Rome, is what can be seen IN the
works of their artists, sculptors and mechanics,
and the evidences of their past gories are man
ifest in the skill of their artizans.
We OF to day VIII, III aAIei centuries D
Judged by thes same standard Then why should
not the mechanic be held in a high estimation
of society? If he is honest, ifhe is Intelligent,
if he is worthy, why should the young lady so
daintily draw her skirts closely around her as
she passes him, as if there was contagion in his
touch? Why should the thousands of young
men who are begging for situations as clerks
and understrappers in stores, be ashamed TO
pull off their seedy coats and go to work as
mechanic?
It is because of false pride--a mistaken re-
spectablity.. .,,......,
These, with degree of responsibility attach
ed to mechanics themselves; many OF them Go
not appreciate the honest worth of their own
calling. They do not strive to cultivate their
self-respect, to educate themselves in the social
and intellectual amenities of life. They do not
strive for cninence and distinction in their de-
partments; are not choice enough in their own
associations read too little, and, alas, shall we
say it, drink too much.
If they would reform and improve themselves
in these particulars, we are constrained to think
that society would meet them on the halfway
ground, and they would stand, as they deserve
to stand, honored among the conservators OF all
prosperity. Commonwealth.