St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-06-29
Take Your Hands out Of Your
Pockets.

TO begin with, it does not look well,
when young man crooks his arms
and thrusts his hands into his pockets,
making a figure eight of himself and
then stands up against the sunny side
of the house, like a rooster in Decem-
Der.
How would the girls look all turned
into eights, and leaning against the
wall ? How would your mother look
in that posture You don't find her
hands in her pockets. Your mothers
hands while You are lOafing they are
the hands that sew, and bake, and
stew, and fry, and sweep, and darn,
and nurse /; but she does not sink them
in her pockets, and then lOll against
the building.
Are your hands cold Warm them
up at the end of the hOe-handle and
the scythe. Swing the hammer; drive
the plane flourish the axe. There is
untold calOric about a spade, trowel,
wrench.
Besides, poeket-heat is not prOfita-
BILE. Have you money there Are your
pockets the safes i'll which you have
hidden treasure, and your hands the
bolts that secure the safe-dOOr4 Money
may he there to-day, but it won't be a
guest over tomorrow night. An idler's
money is apt to leap out of his pocket.
1t is likely to go for pipe, cigar, a
tobacco plug, IA mug of ale. There is
no money in warming.
Take your hands out of Your pockets,
young man You are losing time.
Time is valuable. People feel it at the
other end of the line, when death is
near and eternity is pressing them into
such small quarters, for the work of
this life Graves hours, days, weeks,
years. If those at the end of the line,
if youth with its abundance of resOur-
ces, would only feel that time was pre-
ciOus Time is a quarry. Every hour
may he nugget of gold. 1t is time in
whose invaluable moments we build
our bridges, spike the iron rails to the
sleepers, launch our ships, dig our ca
nails, run our factories. YOu might
have dug twenty hills of potatoes while
| have been talking to you, young man.
Take your hands out of your pockets.
The world wants those hands. The
world is not dead, asleep under the
pyramids, mummy by the Nile. The
world is alive, wide awake, pushing,
struggling, going ahead. The world
wants those hands. You need not take
them out of America. They can find a
market here at home. The country
wants those hands, selling dry goods
in New York, cradling wheat in Mime
sofa, raising cotton in Alabama, weav-
ing cloth in Lowell, picking oranges
in Florida, digging gold in Colorado,
catching mackerel from the deck of a
down-east fishing smack. Take your
hands out of your pockets
And what a laudable thing it is to
meet the wants of society and do your
best When you are an old man, what
an honorable thing your hand will be !
Did you ever think of the dignity
investing the wrinkled hand of an old
worker 1t has been so useful, lifted
so many burdens, and wrought in such
honorable service. Who wants hand
without character when old age
comes On-a soft, flabby, do-nothing
hand
You are willing to work, you say,
but can't find anything to do ?
Nothing to do Do the first thing
that comes along. Saw wood, get in
coal, go on errands. In short, do any
thing honest with your hands, but don't
let them loaf in your pockets.