The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-05-31
MINDS MARCHES.

The lover Of the agricultural enter
prises Of the Pacific Northwest has only
u look through the extensive ware
rooms Of Messrs. Chapman & Newberry,
of this city, for evidence Of the great de-
mand for farming implements Of every
Imaginable description, which it has
become the aim of these gentlemen to
supply. Their business house occupies
the entire depth of a block, running
through from Front to First streets, and
known as the Granger Market. One Of
the gentlemanly proprietors will con-
duct you along the main thoroughfares,
past wagons, buggies, plOws, harrows,
horse rakes, seed drills, cultivators, etc,
ETC., till you get fairly bewildered with
the goodly array Of labor-saving luxu-
ries, all going TO prove that man is not
afraid of the possibly awful conse-
quences of escaping the curse OF eating
his bread in the sweat of his face.
After the visitor has sated his vision
upon so many sights that he is in doubt
whether TO purchase patent churn or
a sulky potato digger, but at last deeid-
ing, II a man, TO select the latter, il a
woman, to choose the former III she can
only get the necessary greenbacks to in
sure the transfer, he returns by another
thoroughfare, and pauses before what
seems mammoth sewing and knitting
machine, run by horses, with coarse
spool wire for thread, and a needle made
of an elongated crowbar.
"What in the name Of old curiosity
shops and new-fangled cunning articles
can this be ?" we ask, with as much in
quisitive concern as though mother Eve
had never gotten into trouble by search
ing after knowledge.
"Why it's an Osborne combined
reaper and mower" replies our smiling
escort.
And to show you that it works like a
thing of life, an attendant is ordered to
turn a wheel, aud 10, the intricate and
yet simple machinery is set in motion,
and before your face and eyes a bundle
Of straw is caught, folded, bound, de-
taehed, and tossed aside; the arm Of the
needle goes up, the machine opens its
mouth for another bite, the scissors that
clip the wire thread adjust themselves
for another effort, and you have solved
the problem Of how it works. Put this
machine upon an open field of ripened
grain, with a span OF horses and a
fourteen-year-old boy or girl to guide
and manage them, and your grain
will be cut and bound as il by
magic. Thus year by year are the
old appliances for hand labor being
driven to the wall by the ingenious de-
vices Of the human mind. The people
are in a transition state because of these
frequent inventions, and many of them
are complaining that the daily laborer
is being defrauded OF his hire. But so
long as there is an unclaimed rood of
Gods footstool for humanity to subdue
and possess, just so long will there be
room in the world for all of his willing
workers. The common school is help
ing to solve the problem of the present
and the future; and side by side with
labor-saving implements will march the
steady progress Of quickened intellect,
till some day the homeless day laborer
will be thing Of the past. Let no one
fear the certain triumph of mind over
matter, for the insensate steam is yet to
be harnessed to the performance Of
every onerous physical need, leaving
man to more fully cultivate the esthetic
10 his nature, and grow more like his
Creator, who ever toileth, though with
out hands.