The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-12-01
Ghildrem's Column.
Take Your Hands Out of Your
Pockets, Young Man.
BY EDWARD A. RAND.

To begin with, it does not look well,
when young man crooks his arms and
thrusts his hands into his pockets, max
ing figure eight of himself, and then
stands up against the sunny side of the
house like rooster In December.
How would the girls look, all turned
into Fights and leaning against the wall
How would your mother look in that
posture? Catch her doing It'll You don't
find her hands in her pockets. Your
mothers hands while you are loafng
they are the hands that sew, and bake,
and stew, and fry, and sweep, and darn
and nurse, and she does not sink them
in her pockets and then loll against a
building.
Are your hands cold? Warm them up
at the end of the hoe-handle and the
scythe. Swing the hammer; drive the
plane; flourish the axe. There is untold
caloric about spade, trowel, wrench.
Besides, pocket-heat is not profitable.
Have your money there, though? Are
your pockets the safes in which you have
hidden treasure, and are your hands the
bolts that secure the safe-door? Money
may be there to day, but it won't be a
guest over tomorrow night. An idler's
money is apt to leap out of his pocket.
1t is likely to go for pipe, cigar, a
tobacco-plug, mug of ale. There is no
money in pocket-warming
Girard did not keep his hands in his
pockets Astor did not keep his hands
in his pockets. Stewart did not keep his
hands in his pockets. Benjamin Frank
lin, Horace Greedy, and Cornelius Wander
bilt were not pocket-warmers.
Take your hands out of your pockets,
young man. You are losing time Time
is valuable. People feel it at the other
end of the line when death is near and
eternity is pressing them into such small
quarters, for the work of this life Graves
hours, days, weeks, years. If those at
this end of the line, if youth with its
abundance of resources would only feel
that time was precious. Time is quarry.
Every hour may be a nugget of gold 1t
is time In whose invaluable moments we
build our bridges, spike the iron rails to
the sleepers, launch our ships, dig our
canals, run our factories. You might
have planted twenty hills of potatoes
while [ have been talking to you, young
man. Take your hands out of your
pockets
The world wants those hands. The
world is not dead, asleep under the
Pyramids, a mummy by the Nile. The
world is alive, wide awake, pushing
struggling, going ahead. The world
wants those hands. You need not take
them out of America. They can find a
market here at home. The country
wants those hands, selling dry goods in
New York, grading wheat in Minnesota
raising cotton in Alabama, weaving cloth
In Lowell, picking oranges in Florida
> digging gold in Colorado, catching mack
erel from the deck of down-eas fishing
smack. Take your hands out of your
pockets
And what laudable thing it is to
meet the wants of society and do youx
best When you are an old man, what
an honorable thing your hand will be |
Did you ever think of the dignity in
vesting the wrinkled hand of an old
worker? 1t has been so useful, lifted
30 many burdens and wrought in such
honorable service. Who wants hand
without character when old age comes
"a soft, fabby, do-nothing hand?
You are willing to work, you say, but
can't find anything to do?
Nothing to do Do the first thing that
comes along Saw wood, get in coal, 90
on errands. In short, do anything honest
with your hands, but don't let them loaf
in your pocb ets.-Go1dea Days.