The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1881-04-08
WORK. WORK.
~

g One of the greatest vices in, the or
ganization of Southern Society it must
be confessed, is in detective idea on
this subject II is best for us all to
dissect the weaknesses we are subject
to, own up, and go to work remedying
them at once. Then the fact is, that
at bottom, there is not that inherent
respect for labor, that is necessary in
country, without an organized aristo-
crazy, and especially in country,
where nearly everybody is poor.
There is more respect among us for
broad cloth, than there is for the horny
hand. There are few young men
who are willing to go into the engine
room, or the foundry, and work their
way up, although it is evident, that
a diploma from an engine room, or
cotton-mill, will be worth more in the
future, than one in the overcrowded
professions. When work has to be done,
it is yelled with artifice, as if it We're
discreditable, instead of being bIazoned
as an honor, and a badge of manhood,
We see around us the signs of q frantic
struggle to keep up artificial distinc-
lions founded on old fortunes, and it is
the hardest thing in the world to ac-
tunes by accommodating ourselves to
the conditions of the new time. Peo-e-
pie who when they were rich We're sim
pie in their habits, and were not
ashamed to work by the side of their
negroes, now spend all they make. and
| mortgage their crops beforehand, for
| the materials of cheap ostentation, and
consider the necessity of physical labor
a hard badge of inferiority.
We believe honestly and truly, that
half the misfortunes and misery of our.
| people have their root right here. We
do not say that there is not plenty of
industry-the proud, high spirit which
was displayed in SO many hard cam
paigns of the war, scorns the mere phys
! zeal Inconvenience of toll. But the
same proud high spirit disdains the
associations, the Interpretation of Labor.
as the symbol of a species of degrade
/ ton. The long and the short of it
therefore is, that this spirit is misdi-
rected.
For it is plain, that the law is writ
and there is no way to eyade it. The
men who are to be the guiding spirits
of the future, who are going to own
property, and issue rations, are thes
4 men, who are working, and saving
money now. The practical genius,
which is not afraid of hurting its dam
/ ty hands, the hard common sense,
! which sees the necessity, and provides
] against the contingency, that is the
stuff which builds up wealth from
poverty, and that is the quality which
is needed now.
So far as we are concerned, we can
only aid in the good work, by holding
up the arms of Moses. We know how
the thing is, but the habits of the
olden time are too confirmed, to allow
us practically to show, and exemplify
\ it. But we take position with ven-
cradle old commission merchant of
I New Orleans, who was talking to" !
freind of ours, when some graaS ex-
cesses of the Radicals had produced
peculiar evaporation, 81 tell you y he
exclaimed excitedly sthere has TO be
some killing done. / am getting too
old to go at it myself, but I tell you,
I'll give it my moral support -I'll sit
in the jury box till Judgment day, be-
fore I'll convict one of the boys for
killing one of 'em.
4 So in this matter, all we can do is
TO tell the boys to go hard to work,
and we viii give them our moral sup
port.-B R. Ae1rocate.
A singular delusion is abroad in the
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