Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-03-19

have SAID she would never DO anything
else for n living. She did not know enough
to teach, she never learned to use the nee
die skilfully, sho did not know anything
but to adorn herself in the finery which
drained the pocket and exhausted the
credit of her woodworking father. But
what did she do? l can tell you, for
know the story. She married. She mar
ricd sprig of one of the professionals
chap half read in the lava fellow that
was two hundred dollars in debt for his
board and who hired two hundred dollars
more to make wedding trip to the city.
AS for what the young woman is doing
now, am very safe in saying she would
be better of If she was washing those pota-
toes herself.
Alas for the idle, aimloss life TO which
so many young people are brought upl-
great babies, without self-reliance, without
independence, wholly wanting in the stuff
that men and women are made ofl-babies
and nothing but babies to bo rocked and
graded in helplessness till death shall put
nm end to the miserable farce of lifei
But not all should work directly for
bread. Agassiz, prince of workers-but
perhaps he did not know how to hoe a hill
of beans-was offered $500 TO lecture at a
certain place and time, but he answered
81 have not time to make money" And
well he had not. lie was making what is
more and richer than money. Thought,
the power and habit of research, cultured
mind, the discovery of natures hidden
truths and treasures, the art of tanning the
lightning, finding out the source and ways
of storms-what is corroding coin, what is
money, compared with these riches and
achievements of mind The man who
helps the race TO great truth, great fact,
a great invention, is one OF the great bene-
factors of his race. AMI the world can
well afford TO excuse a large class of its
hardest workers from raising grain, and
lattening beef, and attending sawmills, and
keepng books, while they shall spend
years in the holy sanctuaries of knowledge
to come out from time TO time with bene-
dictions for all mankind. Enrichlng the
world with thought extending the boun-
diries of human knowledge, bringing out
now and improved machinery-all this is
work. There are no harder workers, no
more useful workers, than those whose
inventions and discoveries facilitate the
work that all the rest of the world has 10
do.
We live in peculiar country-where the
aristocracy is the substantial aristocracy of
work. The old world aristocracies of birth
and blood do not flourish under the in
nuences ofour institutions. The common
school is a wonderful commoner. The rich
and the poor meet together and brains win
the prizes. Our laws of inheritance are
commoners. Estates cannot be kept in
tact for generations by laws of primogen-
iture. A man may be born in rude howell
but he shall come to the White House for
all that. He may be born in Fiflh Avenue
but he dies in Water street for all that.
American society is like boiling pot-the
bottom is constantly coming TO the top, and
the top is constantly going under. The
working man to-day will be rich to-mor-
row. The riches of to-day will take wings
ard fly away at night-fall. The occupants
of parlor and kitchen will change places at
the ne xt sunrise. The poorest people to-
day, are the children and grand children
of those who were richest. The rich of to-
day ale the sons and daughters and grand
children of the very poor. poor boy
some sixty years ago-Gell in love with a
| beautiful calf. With just half enough
money to pay for it, he called at the rich
owners door and tried to buy the creature,
| proposing to pay half down and asking q
| little time 10 earn the balance. The rich
man rudely turned the boy away with
some singing remark about trusting boys.
While yet the shadow of the mansion was
on the poor working boy he said to him.
self, "Tll own this mans house some
| time" That sometime came long ago
That poor boy has been one Of the money
kings of New York for years, and his
summer residence is that 81 me mansion
where his credit was not worth half calf
Somehow the brains and virtues which
accumulate property decay with the ac
emulation and possession ofproperty, ant
with such decay the property passes away
The people who are so proud of their wealth
and wardrobes as to deem their wood saw
yers and washeTwomen, dressed in home
spun and calico, beneath their friendly
recognition on the street, would probably
be quite ashamed of their own relations
both those who have gone before and thos
that shall come after them. We are al
full of plebian blood. Would that none o
us had any worse reason TO he ashamed O
our ancestry than this, that they worke'
for IA living. 1t requires no prophets ey
to discern the future owners of estates, an,
occupants of grand residences. Whateve
position and pow er and aristocracy belonl
to wealth will surely in the near future b
possessed by those who work in the pres
ent. One man has an income of thousand
and spends it all and some more doing lii
tie or nothing. Another man earns $500 Il
3l3 long days of hard work and saves So
or S25, every year. Where will those tw
men be some 30 years hepceH
So, then, work for living. Let 1t be in
culcated everywhere, instil it into ever
young mind that no other apology is 5
little called for as an apology for being 8
work.
We have heard that cotton is king, AM
then that corn is king, but it is my opinio
that work is king. 1t is time that the royI
, character and the regal claims of work b
acknowledged. Bring forth the crown an
bring work to the throne.
What has written and printed ever
good book What has planned ever
, house and placed every stone and brio
and timber, in every temple of trade G
= Worship What has built every factor
5 and developed every farm and opene
. every mine? What has laid the ocea
0 cablesH What has wired the lightning a
= over christendom and will yet bring Ice
9 land. and Greenland, and Alaska, an