San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1883-02-08
Luxury Aud Beauty.


Uses of Luxury and Beauty" A few
striking and picturesque passages are
appended.
When man scratches the ground
with his hand it is poor sowing.
When that man gets spade, he is a
man plus spade. When he is rich
enough to get plow he is man plus
a spade and pillow. When he has an
ass to draw it, his power of develop
ment is still greater. And when he
is able to yoke his ass and oxen and
thus extend his operations, why, he is
becoming as much larger as his force
in all these adjutants. When he
doubles his property, he is practically
two men and when he comes to that
point, when he is able to run machin-
cry, then he is as great as the machine
controls. In other words, the man is
as large and as strong as all these in
fiuences combined. When later on,
enlightened so that he can go into the
air and curb the lightning, and going
forth on the waters make the wind of
service to his sails, and delve into the
earth and compel it to give up it's
treasures, then that man is as strong
as all these elements that he has
learned to command.
Mans development, therefore, from
this early and primitive state of bar
barism comes from the unfolding of
his higher nature and the development
of his finer sentiments. These process
es of development are gradual. They
are inherent of his organism, and have
made the human race what it is to-
day. If a man being poor will work
his way up in this way he will soon
begin to love the beautiful. Ihave
seen it in Indians thirty or forty years
ago. A young man came just from
Germany who could not speak our
Language. He begins by sweeping the
streets and sidewalks, and occasional
ly currying horse. Everything he
got, Hans would put in his pocket
and it would never come back again.
It is said German will live upon
what Yankee will throw away, and
the Yankees are considered close; that
the Jew will live upon what German
will throw away. And the Chinese
will iveupon whata Jew throws away.
[Applause.]
After one year my German boy
learns the language pretty well. He
has spent nothing. He earned the
second year large sum that went
with the first. The third year,
having saved everything, he got
enough money to go out and buy a
farm of 100 acres. He keeps working
in the city, and in the course of an
other year he has added to his landed
property, and has sent for his Chris
tine, and he goes to work with his
little wife on the farm, on which the
Lighthouse has been built. He saves
money all the time, and in fifteen
years he shows head and shoulders
above all dependence and ranks among
the great men of the country, while
the smartest boys are considering
whether it would not be good thing
to marry his daughters. Laughter. ]
He is a made man, beginning at the
very bottom and making upward. He
has made himself what he is by the
process to which [ have referred.
But change the figure. Take an
Irishman. He has come over, good,
hearty, healthy and jolly and we will
suppose-in this case I will draw
largely on your imagination-that he
does not drink whisky. When he
first comes overhe does not know any
thing about beauty and refinement.
He has great heart, great ox-like
heart of blood, and no work is too
burdensome for him. An onion and
a sausage are his delicacies. Straw
on the ground is his bed and he sleeps
soundly on it. But i'll four or six
months after he looks around and he
sees that his fellows are little fur
Their advanced in civilization. A
strange sort of feeling comes over him.
He would like a bedstead. Not that
he would sleep any better on it than
he did ON the straw Oh the ground.
He cannot tell what the feeling is,
but he thinks he would be better if he
had bedstead ;he has taken one step
toward taste. Laughter. He has
sprouted. Renewed laughter And
sure enough, while before he was con-
tent to take out his jack-knife and
cut his meat On a box, he now thinks
that table would be more appro.
pirate.
After the table, Bridget comes, and