The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-02-25
Cut off the Dead Wood.

BY BISHOP CLARK, OF RHODE ISLAND.
This isgood work for the beginning
0f a newYear.
DEAD wood is not only unsightly,
but it is Injurious to the tree. We
need to get lid of it, in order to give
that which Is alive a fair chance.
From my window where write l
see number of old oaks that have
begun to die az the top because of the
fish hawks whobuiid their huge nests
there and satur,te the bark with salt
water. The tree is sure to die unless
the process is arrested, although it
may PERISH more slowly than it
would do iftherOots were affected.
Some men begin to die at the top.
The action of the brain is affected,
and they become immobile, inert,
indOlent; the impulse is taken out of
their life, while the ordinary func-
lions of existence continue to act, and
they go on eating and drinking, and
talking and sleeping; they cease to
be of any further use in the world.
They are the dead wood of society,
and everybody feels that they are an
incumbrance. And it is the dead
wood that breeds vermin. Inertia
is the mother Of vices.
There is too much dead wood in
the learned professions, and in most
other departments of life. The sap
does not seem to have reached them.
They are much to be pitied, but
they are none the less in the way for
all that. 1t may or may not be their
fault that they bring forth no fruit.
They would be glad 10 do something
il they knew how; and perhaps they
might have accomplished some little
work If they had net mistaken their
, vocation.
The Christian ministry would be
none the worse for judicious prun-
ing. There are lawyers and doctors
who might he laid on the shelf, and
the world be no worse off. The great
army of the unemployed is a sad
spectacle to look upon F.; but, then, if
ore finds that he has got in the
wrong place, why need he stay there
SO persistently? There is something
which every man can do who has
arms and hant:s and a tongue in his
mouth, and any small modicum of
brains in his head. There is the soil
to lie titled, and fish to be caught in
the sea, and multitude of other oc-
equations which require no special
amount of genius, and why not turn
in them for living? 1t is more
honorable to work with the hands,
in any honest way, than to drop down
on ores friends and eat the bread of
dependence.
In mid winter, as I look out of my
window, l cannot distinguish the
dead from the live wood i'm the tree,
and in fact there is nothing left hut
the rim skeleton; the leaves and
every thing that indicated life van
ished weeks ago. But the other
night the strong wind blew, and the
earth was covered with dead sticks.
The living branches held on and
de6ed the storm, but the poor, rotten,
dead things had to give way. And
so 1t is when any great TEMPEST
sweeps over the land; the lifeless,
useless men, who in quiet times had
crept into the Offices, are swept Off
the shams are displaced, and the real
men come to the front. The law Of
the survival of the strongest comes
into play, and the weak are dethron-
ed. Great crises help men, and then
the men shape the crises.
Dead wood is good for nothing but
to he burned. and If it has died OH the
tree it is not good for much even for
fuel. 1t Is hard to tell just what to
do with the dead wood In society.
Hospitals for the inert and inefficient
would only extend and perpetuatr
the evil.