Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1883-09-15

shall set one foot upon the sea and the
other upon the land, and swear by
Him who liveth forever that "time
shall be no more"
"For man may come and man may go,
But work goes on foreverp
"In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou
eat bread"-and right then was labor
instituted. There is no dignity in labor
Those who have written splendid essays
on its dignity never tried it with their
muscles. Seneca wrote of the beauties
of poverty, and was rich enough to
write it on table of gold; but the
poor would rather have the table than
the essay.
Labor is curse entailed upon us
by the transgression of our first parents.
They had a good thing Of it; they
wanted better, and lost it all! Don't
consider me as blaming the old folks,
There is no pair of their defendants,
young and healthy, who, insulated to
themselves, without the fear OF public
opinion, but that would have done as
they did. They have always had my
sympathy, especially since the war.
They had a splendid landed estate, but
nobody to work for them, for the
negro was not then caught and tanned.
They did all they could under the cir
cumstapces-they bsgot sons. Cain was
not dignifed by his labor; contending
with cat.claw briars and sassafras
sprouts did not improve his temper,
and he behaved badly; and when he
went to the LAND of Nod" it was not
to 60 to sleep, but to make living.
So he, too, begot sons and put them to
work.
Work is honorable. 1t is the foun-
dation of civilization, but there is no
dignity in sweat and toll. 1t has no
doubt happened to you, as well as to
myself, for some sewing machine agent
Or fruit peddler to drive up to the farm
and ask us if the gentleman of the
place was at home. How often in
youth have / heard some beautiful but
thoughtless city belle say with sheer,
"Why, he's only mcdaniel" or
"only a farmer" l have lived long
enough to know some OF them, when
languishing as old maids, or worse
still, the slave of some sidewalk dandy,
feel in the bitterness of regret, that
really she believes that some she re-
jected before would now do very well
for her. AS we'll may yonder tall and
tapering spire, which rears its archi.
tectural beauty heavenward, scorn the
strong and rugged rocks upon which it
is founded.
Labor and sweat are penalties of the
"fall," but heaven has draped these
penalties with beauty and love; our
Creator has so constituted us that none
are happy unless their minds or hands
are busy-except the educated negro
and the dude. All honor to every in
dustry engaged in gathering material
and shaping them so as to be applica-
BILE to the uses of mankind. All praise
to all labor which contributes to the
material, intellectual or moral wealth
of the State. But agriculture, "primu;
inter pares"-"the first among equals,
the chief, most excellent, the hear
which sends its life currents through al
the departments of industry, and by
its deposits sustains, enriches and
adorns all the accumulations of labor
the mother of all arts, of all the trades
of all the industries it can hook around
upon the busy, progressing world, ant
claim all the products of skill and la
Dor and genious as its own contribution
to the worlds happiness. There is in j
what the old alchemist sought for il
vain-he thought he would find fuiC
which would transmute all things int
gold-the plOaC is the great alchemist o
modern times, for not a steam trans
port, not locomotive, with its ricl
freight, not a city, with its palaces and
its shops, glittering with gold and gems
not factory, with its whirling spindle'
and gathering machinery, not house
with its luxurieS or necessities, not al