The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1875-10-11
"DEHIL'S DUST"


William Randolph Emerson, rels-
tive. we suppose, ofthe great Ralph Wal
do Emerson, delivered IN address the
other day in Boston. in which he said
Some 1900 ysau ago there was law among
Tia old Hindooe against the practice Of addinS
artificial Ingredients to cloth to give it greater
weight and money value; the materials en-
ployvd for this purpose, beyond certain very
s ANAL > pr o*n'' being branded ~ "d'vir'
These poor Hindoos, whom We call pagan
and benightsd, have given as lessons in good
workmanship, good taste and quiet, untaring
patience, and in this old hw they give IN :
good example Of morality. Call home the
missionaries! We are the litter subjects for
conversion. *
Il i useless for us to ignozs the fact that
with dsvits dust; it has been scattered abroad
with All unspering hand; if our satisfies could
estimate it, it would appear in its columns by
the ton. During the war We were more nearly
ch0ked byit than by the smoke Of the enamy's
cannon; it was struggled by the CARLOAD
through the back door Of the workshops Of the
army contractor; the blue coat tumbied in rags
from the shoulders of the brave boys; their
shoes fell to peices, and there was stouter
covering for thier feet in Virginia mud than
Massachusetts, leather; the old flag even was
blown to shreds, not more by the battleblast
than because there was shoddy in its bunting
Besides the articles for making things look
better than they really are, and which, as in the
Thousand familiar instances, in which, with the
resources Of chemistry, the painters brush,
glue, putty and sand paper. the deceptive arts
are employed not so much for the purpose of
initiating that which a thing is not, as for con.
cealing what it really is; this is very common
way Of using "devil's DUST and we are to be
cautioned lest the dust of it be blown into our
eyes.
When we buy furniture put together with
nails made to look like screws, put possessing
none of the functions of an honest screw, tx
cept the head, when We SEE galvanized iron
used as material for sculpture and GROWING
some noble building mot, we trust. the SYM
Dol of the business to be transacted below
glitterlng like bronze without. but hollow
mockery wlthin;l when in our architecture
good onest brickwork is coated to look like
stone and shortly casts Its skin in vindication Of
its birthright; when In our churches the Com
mandments are painted on cheap panels OF ath
and plaster; and made to look like the chisel
on tablets o. precious marble; when society
smiles as it detects the cheats that are hourly
practiced upon it, and SAYS, 'How clever my
workmen are y then Is it not plain that not the
arts only, but the fine sensibiities of society
| itself are sitting under the DEVILS dust =?
| And is it not high time that men who love
good, honest workmanship, and know that
the progress or decline of the industrial arts OF
this country depends upon its employment or
its rejection; that such men should protest, that
| the mechanics Of the old Bay State should pro-
test, against all practices, all Devices in every
department of labor that are employed for pur.
poses that are deceptive and not for purposes
Of honesty and truth
We like that phrase.-"devils dust. >
The country and the age are full
OF it. 1t is peppered all over bust
ness. law and politics; even religion
shines with it. and the sanctuaries Of the
Most High are covered with shodd,
cloth, cheap gliding and devils dust.