Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-11-21
Mechanical Science.

II may DC That 10 tue euu VI time IL III
XII d must earn their bread by the sweat
OF their brow. All the same. Itseems as
If mechanical inventions will eventually
make existence easier all reund, and
save the human machine from the most
distressing and hfe-shortening results oI
wear and tear. Our first parents made
themselves aprons of fig leaves, clearly
demonstrating by Holy Writ that pri.
mitive sewing was the initial industry,
and that every other form of occupation
is less ancient than that of tailoring OF
dress making. As Adam delved and
Eve span," SO countless generations of
ladies and gentlemen OF the highest AL
tedeluvian antiquity got their breal and
made their clothes. Hence manual Ia
bor became honorable, as Judging by
the signs of the times, 1t may again be-
come. aud at no distant date. The in
teresting correspon 1ence which we pub
lish from day to day, bewaiIing the
curse of hapless gentility, poluts to a
change in public opinion with
regard to the honorabiiity OF
hard work People are be-
ginning To recognize that the geuteel
callings are overcrowded, and that it Is
better to teach their boys trade by
winch they may earn a respectable live
lihood, than suffer them to starSe as
clergymen, lawyers and scribes, unat-
tached. Alexander Pope very neatly
formulated the trouble in the age Of our
great-great grandfathers' days: "Honor
and shame from no condition rise; act
well your part there all the honor lies. !"
Probably the greatest disabili y OF me
chanical employment rests on the con-
ventioaal objection to dirty hands. Gen.
feel folk, more or less remotely connect
ed with county families, will not readily
consent to their sons stepping down to
the artisan platform. But Is 1t not pos
sible to raise that platform to higher
leve.? The dignity of calling does
not make itself; it Is made by those who
practice it. Amateur turner's and car
penters, engineers. farmers and garden
srs abound, and gentleman is not less
gentle because he amuses his leisure
time with the lathe, the tool-chest tho sue
cession of crops or the occupation OF re-
moving flies from rosebush. Sir Wal
ter 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 and the
work of the world will go by machinery.
Men will have fewer and fewer mean
tasks to perform, and presumably no
one will be too proud to mind mach
inc. After all. it Is not 70 long since
clerkly skill was beneath the dignity OF
born ar,stocrat, when esrls and knights
signed their names to deeds of settle
ment with the butt-end of dagger, or
conv' ntiOnsl symbolic, cross. Grand
folk who lived uncomfortably in huge
drafty castles, dressed magnifcently,
and were as proud of their gentility rs
proud coud be looked on school learn
ing with open contempt. Folks of this
generation have gone to the other ex-
ITEM. School learning and scholarly
refinement cannot be overestimated, so
long as they do not help to pauperize
the educated classes; but it Is mistake
to assume that we'll stocked memory
and gentle manners are Incompatible
with mechanical employments. Such
inventions as the improved sewing ma
chine 90 to prove the contrary. The
management and conduct of machinery
while 1t neither hardens nor necessarily
beerlmes the hands of the operator,
leaves the intellect free play for rehec-
tiou and affords leisure for self-improye-
mont, 1t will be strange, indeed,
should the spread of mechanical science
which has too long suffered under the
imputation of degrading sentient skill
below the mindless craft OF machinery,
not III the end help to enLoble and dig
.,s, mammal labor