Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1881-09-01
Entering Into Others Labors.

| DuG lew VI lu0 privileges dIiO UACoo-
ings which we now enjoy come to us
by our own individual effort. They are
the results of operations and influences
which have been set in motion by our
predecessors, some of them who lived
not only years, but even centuries ago.
If We could trace the history of these
blessings back to their source, we
should find them closely interviewer
with slowly evolved processes and
and principles, with the rudiments of
science; and associated with events
and efforts far back in the centuries.
There is not in any of our houses a
piece of furniture, book, sewing
machine, or a musical instrument with
which thousands of busy fingers and
active minds have not been associated.
And by them we find ourselves linked
not only to the present and the living,
but also to the distant and the dead !;
we find ourselves the centre of a vast
system of causes and influences revOlv-
ing about us, all of which had part
in bringing to us the comforts we en-
joy.
We take our seat i'm the cars and
travel from city to city, and even from
ocean to ocean without realizing the
outlay of money and energy, and brain
power that was involved to procure us
this great convenience. Should we
count the rods, bolts, screws. bands,
and bars of which the locomotive is
composed, we would find that every
one of them has connected with
its history, muscle, nerve, brain. and,
it may be, tears.
We do not appreciate, us we glide
along the iron track, the. genius, and
the watchful care of the engineer, who
stands with hands upon the lever,
watching with vigilant eye, controlling
every movement of the almost living
machine, and without whose care and
skill we should soon be dashed to
pieces. And were we to trace the his
tory of any locomotive, it would at
once carry us back to Watts sitting by
the fire watching the quiveling tea
kettle lid; and then across the seas,
and back though fifty centuries to the
first smelling of iron, and to the first
workers in brass.
Take any article of your wearing APP
parel. You went to the store, made
your selection in few moments, and
paid few dollars for it. 1t did not
cost you much, although you derive
great comfort and satisfaction from
wearing it. But try to trace its his.
tory. Think of the steam-engines,
ships, and trains of cars which were
necessary to bring together all the ma
terials of which it is composed. Lis
ten to the rattle of the loom, the heavy
roll of machinery, and the whir of ten
thousand spindles; and think of the
thousands of busy and active fingers of
which it felt the impress before it
came into your possession.
If you should under take to write
out the history of one of the most COM
mon implements of art, you would find
yourself threading yoIlr way through
the labyrinths of past centuries, and
gazing upon the rude anvils which
rang out over the hills of Judea and
MesorOtamia. All the discoveries,
arts and inventions which make our
homes differ from the wigwam of the
Indian, or the kraal of the Hottentot,
has come down to us through the toll
of distant generations. Thus other
have ,abored, and we have entered in
to their labors.
If we consider our civil privileges and
national blessings, we find that they,
too, have come to us through others.
They are an inheritance toil-worn.
a blood-bought inheritance.
And what shall we say of our relig-
ious privileges? OF these it is pre-em-
inently true that they have been be-
slowed upon us by others. They have
cost us comparatively nothing. Their
price has been paid by the labor, the
self-denial, the suffering, and the tears
of others. We have fallen on easy
times, my friends. How little we ap-
preciate the value of our blessingsl
How little we realize how much they
cost those who bequeathed them to us!
Surely we tread on hallowed ground.
The ashes of saints and martyrs are be-
meath our feet. Our harvests are gath
cred from the soil that has been wet
with tears. Our most sacred priyi-
leges have been won, guarded, and
transmitted by the bravery and sleep
less vigilance of those who have fallen
in their defense. Truly, "Other men
labored, and ye are entered into their
labors."