Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1874-08-13
[From the Scientific Americana
The Practical Man.

ceiving our final scrutiny, and reques,
ted the loan of the paper for moment
when we had finished. He glanced
over the first page, skinned over the
middle, and peeped into the inside.
81 suppose that paper interests
great many people," he remarked.
We modestly signified our assent,
and murmured something about forty
odd thousand. ,...-..
"Wa'll, it doesn't me" he interrupt
ed sharply. ''It doesn't take no books
or papers to learn me nv business,
you know. Never learned nuthin
from books in my life. Didn't have
but quarters schoolin, and then l
went into the shop. Served my time
with old Pete Reynolds, of Boston
You know'd him, mebba; dead now.
| Was his foreman now I'm boss of nv
own works in the city. I'm a practi-.
cA man, / ana. All yer holIergreys
and hOsserphys may do we'll enough
to write about; but they amt no
sort'er use in the shop. They just git
inter mems heads, and set 'em think
in about other things than theirEork,
and then they git inventin, and that's
the last of 'em. Why, had likely
young feller, who used to ter buy that
paper, and read on it, dinner hour
Sometimes he'd stick it up on his lath,
until stopped that mighty sudden.
Wall, one day caught him scriblin'
with piece ofchalk on bit of board :;
then / know'd the invention fit had
got hold of him, and that he was a
goner. A few weeks after he comes
to the office, and says he: "Boss, I've
got little arrangement here thatn
made the old lathe do better work, %
and he out with one of them regular
printed Paytents, and showed me q
new attachment for making gearin and
sich. WALL says I, to humor him,
like, sonny says I, you can go make
yer masheen and set it up on the lathe
if yer Wanter.' But the ungrateful
villin began to say something about
royalty and shop rights, and I. told
the book-keeper to pay him right off
and let him clear out. Blow me if he
didn't go over to Smiths acrost the
street, and rig his affair there; and
the first thing I knoW'd Smith was
turnin' out work at half my prices
Then I had to go find that feller, and
pay him his blamed royalty, and a
heap it was too. os- f
Now, there was a good hand spilled
Eby a-readin'; if he'd a let that ere pa
per Of your'n alone, he might ha' been
a good, stiddy man, gittin his three
dollars day comfortable and regular
Now they say he's maxim stamps by
thousands, but he's spilled. Wont be
worth nuthin ever fer work agin.-
Where'ud have been if I'd pegged
away at books and noozepayeFs-eh? %
Our practicle friend did not wait for
an answer for while we were cogita-
ting a suitable response, he suddenly
made bolt out of the car and rushed
down side street toward q dilapida-
= ted looking edifice which we conject.
ured, was none other than the 'sworks. u
, owe want no theOrist, we require 8
: practical man." ---: r.. r.
sWheIe can find a practicle man
to take ho Id of my invention and push
?'' How frequently we have heard
| remarks And how often, when we
have turned to the speaker and asked
for definition of the term practical
man, has puzzled expression and lame
attemp at explanation, usually ending
with 80 know what mean," beer
tht sole reply
Our street car friend is one type OF
F the practical man. He is of the ssself
= styled" variety, the most numerous
| probably existing. He is the least
5 useful as an individual, the least pro
! gressive as a brain worker, and the
8 least enlightened as a member of the
human race, of any class of civilized
mankind. He is a compendium O
i thumb rules, an epitome of set ideas
: iencircled by iron barriers of his OWI
= mind, which allow of neither the sub
! stitutioR nor admission of better view
e nor the expansion Of those within
e At mere handicraft, he may be skilled
q but ask him for reason, and he i
dumb. He it is who leads the van o
the shriekers against free and liberia
education, whs clings to that sophisn
) which argues that the s'world is tn,
e best teacher" who turns his son di
rectly frsm the nursery into the shop
S who renounces the inventor and al
a his works, until compelled, by the alb
s sOlute force of circumstances, to yielt
. to progress; and finally, who, havini
= no knowledge other than his manua
Il skill and set of thumb rules, scOrns
( in others.
e "But we want no longhaired philos
J. ,ophers to run our Shops" possibl
thinks the reader. True, nor need w
l. have them. Science says Lore
m Brougham in his fine defnition of tn
a term, sis knowledge reduced to sys
- tenn The true Scientist is be VIII
q. not only possesses this systemati
knowledge, but, if he be so situated a
" to reegire its immediate aid, know
ie how to put it in practice, He is neitt
IN er the sage who meditAtes erudite ab
s, stractions, nor the Soi-disant ''pract
e cal man" who devoted himself to meT
n system. He is eminently the man G
70 70 practice, but ofintelligent practice VIII
IN is master of principles of reason
IS to whom the mere application of
on truth is nothing as compared with tt
Iol truth itself; the latter immutable, th
of former an idea to be changed as OF
be casion may require or judgment sus
y gest. Such is the person we mea
Z" when we seek the practical man, nc
SC. the blatant individual who thrusts hin
nd self forward under that title.
is, Our acquaintance of the street G.
ty. carried off our paper. He honest
hit mailed it back to us the other day, v
ng smiled as we saw the thumb marks
IN sn' all the pages, and opposite an engraviI
10 ~ there was a pencil note of: "I knO
~ bettur plan than this" Perhaps att
No all latent idea in his brain has be
! a aroused or has he taken the inVentit
ing fit? Should he see this, he will prot
u.s. bly, scout the idea that our humble
lu- forts have awakened him, for :
'ge doesn't take no papers to learn !
ss- as my business, you know"