The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1876-03-03

81 want to be something p said the eldest
| of five brothers. 81 want to do something
in the world. l don't care how humble my
position may be in society, if l only effect
some good, for that will really be something.
l'll make bricks, for they are quite indis-
pensable things, and then l shall truly have
done something"
"But that something will not be enough"
quoth the second brother. "What you in
tend doing is just as much as nothing at ALL
1t is journeyman's work, and can be done
by machine. No, | would rather be a
bricklayer, at once, for that is something
real and that's what I'll be. That brings
rank; as bricklayer, one belongs to guild,
and is citizen, and has ones own flag and
ones own house of call. Yes, and if all
goes well, will keep iourneymen. shall
become master bricIlayer, and my wife
shall become masters wife-that is what I
call something"
'That's nothing at all !" said the third.
''That is beyond the pale of the guild, and
there are many of those in a town that stand
far above the mere master artisan. You
may be an honest man but as a master you
will after all only belong to those who are
ranked among commen men. | know
something better than that. / will be an
architect, and will thus enter into the terri
tory of art and speculation. / shall be
reckoned among those who stand high in
point of intellect. I shall certainly have to
serve up from the pick-aXe, so to speak so
I must begin as a carpenters apprentice, and
must 90 about as an assistant, in Il cab,
though | am accust )med to wear a silk hat.
shall have to fetch beer and spirits for
common journeymen, and they will call me
thou and that is insulting But shall
imagine to myself that the whole thing is
only acting, and kind of masquerade. To-
morrow-that is to say, when | have served
my time-l shall go my own way, and the
Others will be nothing to me. shall go to
the academy and get instructions in drawing
and shall be called an architect That's
something I may get to be called sir,
and even, 'worshipful sir, 'or even get hand.
lie at the front or the back of my name, and
shall 60 on building and building, just as
those before me have built. That will al
ways be thing to remember, and that is
what ! call somethingw ~
"But I don't care at all for that some
thing" said the fourth. Iwon't sail in the
wake of others and be cOpyist. | will be
a genius and will stand up greater than all
the rest of you together, / shall be the
creator of new style, and will give the
plan of a building suitable to the climate
and the material of the country, for the
nationality of the people, for the develop
ment of the agc-and an additional story
for my own genius"
"But supposing the climate and the
material are bad, said the fifth, "that would
be disastrous circumstance for these two
exert great influence, Nationality, more
over may expand itself until it becomes
atiectation, and the development of the CEN
tury may run wild with your work, as
youth often runs wild. I quite realize the
fact that none of you will be anything real,
however much you may believe in yourselves.
But, do what you like, | will not resemble
you; ! shall keep on the outside of things,
and crticise whatever you produce. TO
every work there is attached something that
is not right-something that has gono wrong;
and will ferret that out and find fault with
it, and that will be doing something"
And he kept his word, and everybody said
concerning this fifth brother: "There is
certainly something in him; he has good
head, but he does nothing" And by the
very means they thought something of
him.
Now, you see this is only little story (,
but it will never end so long as the world
lasts. But what became of the five broth
ers? Why, this is nothing and not some
thing. Listen, it is capital story.
The eldest brother, he who manufactured
bricks soon became aware of the fact that
every brick, however small it might be, pro-
duced for him a little coin, though this coin
was only copper and many copper pennies
laid one upon the other can be changed into
shining dollar and wherever one knocks
with such dollar in ones hand, whether at
the bakers or the butchers, or the tailor's
wherever it may be, the door flies open,
and the visitor is welcomed, and gets what
he wants. You see that is what comes of
bricks. Some of those belonging to the
eldest brother certainly crumbed away, or
broke in two, but there was a use even for
these.