Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-10-26
Take Your Hands out OF Your Pockets.

To begin with, it does not look well, when
ayoung man crooks his arms and thrusts his
hands into his pockets, making a figure
eight of himself, and then stand up against
the sunny side Of the house, like rooster in
December.
How would the girls look all turned into
eights, and leaning against the wall i? How
would your mother look in that posture ?
You don't find her hands in her pockets.
Your mothers hands while you are loafing
they are the hands that sew, and bake, and
stew, and fry, and sweep, and darn, and
nurse; but she does not sink them in her
pockets, and then loll against the building.
Are your hands cold 2 Warm them up at
the end Of the hoe handle and the scythe.
Swing the hammer; drive the plane; -four
sh the axe There is untold caloric about
spade, trowel, a wrench.
Besides, pocket-heat is not profitable.
Have you money there Are your pockets
the safes in which you have hidden treasure,
md are your hands the bolts that secure the
'afe-door Money may be there to-day,
out it won't be guest over tomorrow night.
An idler's money is apt to leap out of his
pocket. 1t is likely to go for pipe, cigar,
tobacco plug, mug of ale There is no
money in pocket-warming.
lake your hands out of your pockets,
young man You are losing time. Time
valuable. People feel it at the other end
If the line, when death is near and eternity
IS pressing them into such small quarters,
Tor the work of this life Graves hours, DAYS,
weeks, years. If those at the end of the
inc, if youth with its abundance of resour-
,es, would only feel that time was precious
Time is a quarry Every hour may be a
nugget of gold. 1t is time in whose invalu-
,ble moments we build our bridges, spike
he iron rails to the sleepers, launch our
hips, dig our canals, run our factories. You
night have dug 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 pyra-
inids, mummy by the Nile. The world is
alive, wide awake, pushing, struggling, go
ng 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 mackerel from
the deck of a down-east fshing.smack.
Take your hands out of your pockets
Aud what laudable thing it is to meet
he wants of society and do your best
When you are an old man, what an honora.
BILE thing your hand will be
Did you ever think of the dignity invest
| ing the wrinkled hand of an old worker
| 1t has been so useful, lifted so many burdens,
| and wrought in such honorable service
Who wants hand without character when
| old age comes on-a soft, fabby, do.nothing
hand?
You are willing to work, you say, but
can't find anything to do
Nothing to dol Do the first thing that
comes along. Saw wood, get in coal, go on
errands. In short, do anything honest with
your hands, but don't let them loaf in your
| pockets.
A good example OF what can be done by a
young man who takes and keeps his hands
out of his pockets" was set by one who
graduated few years ago az Harvard Uni
versity. He determined to become cotton
manufacturer. Instead of relying upon his
general education, and waiting for an open.
| ing, as many of his classmates did, he began
at once to prepare specially for the business
he had chosen by entering machine-shop
as a Notwithstanding full hours, and
acquaiuting himself with every part Of the
machinery Of cotton-mill. From the
machine-shop he went into the cotton-mill,
and by hard work and close attention
rapidly acquired thorough knowledge of
all the processes of cotton manufacture.
While some of his classmates were waiting
and looking for an opening in business, and
others were with difficulty filling subord-
nate positions, he was rapidly rising step by
step, until he is to-day in charge of one Of
the largest cotton mills in New England,
with ample salary, and what is better, is dis
charging the duties of his position with
great satisfaction to the company he serves.
Golden DAYS.