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

legacy unexpectedly fell to him. Tho first
thought was this selfish one, CHOW l can
quit business and live on my estate The
second and prevailing thought was this
az can enlarge my business and ircatly
increase my usefulness
The first object of work is in the dircc-
ton of tho necessarics of life. The bread
and butter question is about the first on
tho list. Then the conveniencios aud COM
forts of life in due measures demand our
toll. But when competence Is reached and
the power to work remains, the duty TO
work also remains. When man has
helped himself he has only begun to ac-
complsh his proper lle-work. There
remains the greater matter Of helping
others,
Everybody should learn some Kind or
sclfsupporting work. No education should
be deemed even technically finished until
the student has learned at least one way 10
earn his bread aud butter, Every candi-
date for professional life will do well to
take u turn at the plough or forge. No
woman has a right to accept the position of
wife until she is considerably vcrsed in all
the details of homework. The wife who
does not know enough in the art of house
keeping to inteligently superiutend all
the details of the kitchen is pitiablc slave
to her servants, and her husband is much
more to be pitied. know a wooden man
ulacturer, a man of large property, so thor
oughly acquainted with his factory that lie
can detect anything wrong in any part of
the machinery on the instant of entering
room, though it be full of busy spinncrs
and weavers, and il need he can turn his
hand for a day or an hour TO any part Of tho
work, from that of the bobbiu boy to that
of finishing the cloth. He knows every
twist, and turn, and loop and stitch, in all
tho processes between the unwashed fleece
and the finished fabric. A few years ago
the president of one of the foremost col
leges in Ohio was a man who could any
day take the place of any of the faculty in
the recitation room. l know a man, at the
head of n boarding school at the time l
speak of, whose wife ought to have been
born in a world without kitchens. The
last day OF school term the cook was sud-
denly called home by sickness of friends.
The morning after term closed all the stu
dents save two sel-boarders in the attic
had gone. The family then consisted of
the professor and his wife and her mother
and sister, and there was nothing for
breakfast and these three women were
so utterly helpless that no breakfast could
be had until they should go to the attic
and get one of those self-helping self
boarders to come down and make a supply
of hot rolls. Poor woman! poor wife |!
poor husband! A man may about rs we'll
marry milestone as TO try to make head
way or keep above water in financial seas
with such a wife on his hands. Not that
every woman should be her own cook and
washerwomap, or that every man should
be his own hostlor and woodsawyer, but in
this world it is very good thing TO know
how to do all these absolutely necessary
kinds of work.
Such is the fitness OF things and such The
uncertainty of every tomorrow, that every
young man and every young woman should
| learn some kind of work-practical, useful
| work-work that in all ordinary times will
procure living. Ono reason, much over
looked in accounting for the fact that sons
| vi ldIIlltIS anu IlltCudUltS So OllCu DNtOillt
| leading men in mercantile and professional
labors is this simple fact, that they have
| learned to work. They have driven oxen,
held plough, shovcled dirt, picked up po-
tatoes on the farm, and have hammered
iron, used the saw, made boots, tanned
leather in the shop, and they go TO the
counting room and law Office with the
wealth of independence to begin With.
They know this, that they can get 4 good
living even if no clients come aud trade
brings no gain. They have something "a
fall back on. They can hold Il plough, dig
a ditch, drive nails, pound iron aud peg
boots. They are Independent on the bread
and butter question as long as they have
two hands. They have driven the wolf Of
want from their doors. The great victory
Of practical life is gained and ali others arc
comparatively easy.
Not all must do the same kind Of work
Not all must do equally dirty work. There
be thousands of divisions of work and a,
many varying adaptations to work. | have
very little sympathy with most of the talB
l hear and read about lahoring classes anC
workingmen's parties. The worl; OF thi,
world is not all done by calloused hands
in leather aprons and coarse cloth. Fo
augbt that / can see, weary brain anC
tired nerves deserve consideration equal
with aching muscles. The badge Of work
is not the clothes a man wears, or tn,
roughness of his hands, or the parlicua
tools he uses. Many of the great students
have been among the hardest workers. II
all the honest walks of life, from the bank
err TO the boot-black, from the statesman [,
the sevedore, are TO be found workin,
men. 1t is not the kind Of busiress tina
marks the laboring man, hut his puttinj
work into Mat business.
Some classify men as producers and con
sumers. But what producer is not also
) consumer, and what consumer in any hon
} est work but is also, directly or indirectly
) a producer? Is not boot, n yard of cloth
an article of furniture or apparel produC
; as well as anything in the field? Is th
p wheat product any more than the many
featured flour? And is the -four a produC
l any more than the barrel or sack contain
ing it? The farmer needs the manuiactur
D er as much as the manufacturer needs tn
farmer. The mechanic needs the merchar
: as much as the merchant needs the me
A | chanic. The borrower needs the banker a
| much as the banker needs the borrlwe
a And all need the minister as much as th
a minister needs all. In respect to the dut
= to work, we have no pre-eminonce OH
# above another; and if men work, usin
e pen or plough, wearing the smiths leathe
i apron or the miners sooty frocli, or IL
n tidy, unsoiled dress of the table waite
o whether perfumed with the odors OF II