Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-11-01
Mechanical Science.

It may be that to the end of time man
kind must earn their bread by the sweat
of their brow. All the same, it seems as
if mechanical inventions will eventually
make existence easier all round, and
save the human machine from the most
distressing and Lfe-shortening results
of wear and tear. Our first parents
made themselves aprons of fig leaves,
clearly demonstrating by Holy Writ
that primitive sewing was the initial in
duStry, and that every other form of Oc-
cupation is less ancient than that of tail
oring or dress making. AS ''Adam
delved and Eve span," so countless gen
erations of ladies and gentlemen of the
highest antediluvian antiquity got their
bread and made their clothes. Hence
manual labor became honorable, as,
Judging by the signs of the times, it
may again become, and that at no dis
tant date. The interesting correspond
ence which we publish from day to day,
bewailing the curse of u hapleSs gentil-
ity, points to a change in public opinion
with regard to the honOrability of hard
work. People are beginning to recog-
nize that the genteel caIlings are over
crowded, and that it is better to teach
their boys a trade by which they may
earn a respectable livelihood, than suffer
them to starve as clergymen, lawyers,
and scribes, unattached. Alexander
Pope very neatly formulated the trouble
of the age in our great-great-grand-
fathers days: ''HonOr and shame from
no condition rise; act well your part,
there all the honor lies" Probably the
greatest disability of mechanical en-
Payments rests on the conventional OBJ
lection to dirty hands. Genteel folk,
more or less remotely connected
with county families, will not
readily consent to their sons stepping
down to the artisan platform. But is it
not possible to raise that platform to a
higher level? The dignity of a calling
does not make itself; it is made by those
who practice it. Amateur turner's and
carpenters, engineers, farmers, and
gardeners abound, and a gentleman is
not less gentle because he amuses his
! leisure with the lathe, the tOol-chest,
the succession of crops, or the Occupa-
ton of removing flies from a rosebush.
| Sir Walter Scott wished all his readers
''clean hands, clear head, and patriotic
! heart, like Pitt Science will make
his desire apply practically and to every
| calling. Very soon the wheels of labor,
machinery. Men will have fewer and
fewer mean tasks to perform, and pre-
sumably no one will be too proud to
mind machine. After all, it is not so
long ago since clerkly skill was beneath
| the dignity of born aristocrat, when
earls and knights signed their names to
deeds of settlement with the but-end
| of dagger, or a conventional, symbolic
| croSs Grand folk who lived TpcOUfOrf-
able in huge drafty castles, dressed
magnifcently, and were as proud of
| their gentility as proud could be, looked
on school learning with open contempt
| Folks of this generation have gone to
| the other extreme. School learning
and scholarly refinement can not be
oyerestimated, so long as they do not
! help to pauperize the educated classes;
! but it is a mistake to assume that we'll
| stocked memory and gentle manners
| employments. Such inventions as that
of the improved sewing machine in a
measure 90 to prove the contrary. The
management and conduct ofmachinery,
while it neither hardens nor necessarily
begrimes the hands of the operator,
| leaves the intellect free play for rehec-
ton and affords leisure for sef-imprOEe-
ment. 1t will be strange, indeed, should
the spread of mechanical science,
which has too long suffered under the
/ imputatiOn CT degrading sentient skill
below the mindless craft of machinery,
not IN the end help to ennoble and
dignity manual labor.-LoRdOas 1eset
/ graph.