The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-01-17
RHYMES FOR THE LABoRING MAN
BY z. w. LOCKE.

By E w. LOCKE.
I've few words TO say to the laboring man,
And III make them as few and as plain as ]
For a brother in toll have been fifty years,
And what little I've learned would give to
my peers
There's restless condition in workshop and
mill;
There is sullen eye service and lack of good
There are plenty to work, if job strikes
them right,
But they're rea,Iier far their employer to
fight.
In the quaEries and mines there are mutter-
There are passwords and grips, and dread Sc.
Srets to keep;
The employer who aids them by foresight
and purse.
Who have tunneIed the mountains and open
ed the mines
And set millions to work on the shafts and in
Who'ye made roads to the praIries, and cheap
homes for all,
And brought city and farm within neighbor-
ly CALI
Who have seized steam and lightning, as well
And compelled them to serve US like disci-
Who have sridged The broad oceans, and CIR
With a pulsatinR nerve and a thought speak
ing girthf
Just the men whom the rabble select for
abuse
And. though often maligned, as if heather or
Turk,
Are the toiler's best friends, for they find him
the work.
Have the men who have wealth never helped
NaVAr a1dAd a com fnrt mr. dav of nastina2
Have they brought you no dainties from
In the swift gliding ship or the wind wing
car?
Think OF cOffees and spices and long lists of
And the fruits of all climates your palate to
please.
And thousand cheap luxuries. brought to
By the merchant with money, who trades to
make more.
If you're helpful to him, he is helpful to you.
And your fellowships ought to be Loyalty
true.
1t Is likely that less than a score years ago
He was clerk on small pay for some Stewart
& Co.
Is not entered in stealth. by some privileged
But is open to you; yet this maxim please
learn:
To succeed you must spend something less
than you earn.
A hi my labOring friend, tits a fearful mistake
To be stirring up strife for the workingman's
sake;
Let us earn what we can, while we never for
That the wealth of the world is but crystalliz-
ed sweat.
There's but one course to take for the work r
to thrive
Like the bee he must gather each day for his
hive;
He must lessen expose if his income is small,
And for anything usele SIS spend nothing at all =.
When a lad cut wood at three shillings a
For the same helped turn over an acre of
And ], gave little thought to the good or bad
times,
But just kept at my work and looked out for
dimes.
Then our strikes" were with axes and ham,
mers and mauls.
And our "unions" were cuttings. fruit par
ings, and balls;
And the young got married. when husbands
and wives
Went to work to be useful the rest of their
lives.
But mankind is improving, the wiseacres
Yet true thrift is not realty in fashion to-day
We run headlonR in debt, to get ont as we can ,
And complain how the rich crush the labor
ing man.
I've bOotstitcher friend by the name of Jim
PeA>e,
Who can earn twenty dollars week at his
ease,
Though he's stuck to his seat for at least
twenty-years,
And but four to support. he is still in arrears.
Then know oc another who on half of Jim's
pay,
With all needful expenses as much every way,
Has just purchased q cottage, and paid the
cash down.
That is thriftless jim Pease, and this is thrifty
Joe Brown.
These two types of manhood you can vie W at
your ease;
You can copy Joe Brown or the spendthrift
Jim PeaSe.
We complain of the times. but they never
Will mend
Till we live to the rule to earn more than we
spend.
CAMBRIDE. September 10th 1878.