The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1883-09-01


never even risen to offer a motion
OF thanks or moved an adjourn.
ment to get my name mentioned
In the proceedings. When / first
came among you | found men who
talked a great deal, men who
would talk, and who | liked to
hear talk. AS a delegate !, too.
had a right TO talk, and could no
doubt have learned to do SO at
your expense, but as diffidence
and mOdesty have weighed like an
incubus upon my ambition all my
life, preferred to listen and to
learn. and have patiently sat at
the feet of these agricultural Ga.
maliels and absorbed wisdom. as
it was sown broadcast, drilled and
narrowed into me.
During the last few days, / have
changed the whole programme of
this performance. have written
an essay on labor so deep, so full
of research, so exhaustive, so la.
borious, that my name would have
been handed down among the Ma.
cauleys and Carlyles of literature
and Nancy's creek would have
appeared on the next published
map as an important branch of the
Etowah, because the great Ameri.
can essayist lived upon its verdant
banks. But the weather was too
hot, the domestic farming and mil.
ling calls too frequent for me to
perfect it. SO with my heart filed
with kindness. and pity for a pa.
tent but suffering audience, l
kicked the pedestal of fame from
under my feet and pigeonholed
the valuable document for my
grandchildren to use as wrapping
paper, and determined to draw in
spiration from laboring millrocks,
floating meal dust and the music
of falling water, and scratch these
thoughts as they occurred to me,
always certain that if it was not
on labor it must be on some other
subject, making up in length what
it lacked in depth, and confident
of paying back some that have
preceded me in measure full, well
shaken and running over as a mil.
ler's tOll.dish.
Labor is subject diffuse enough
in itself If l could stick to it.
1t is scattered all over this round
world. 1t was instituted soon af
ter the creation of man, and rolled
down the stream of time, ever in
creasing, ever improving as the
human race multiplied and the civ
ilization of nations demanded, ant
the various instruments of toi
will never be laid aside until drop
ped from the nerveless hand O
the laborer when the angel shal
set one foot upon the sea and tn,
other upon the land, and swear b,
him who liveth forever that tim,
shall be no more. For man ma,
come and man may 90, but worl
goes on forever.
In the sweat of thy face shal
thou eat bread, and right ther'
was labor instituted. There is n,
dignity in labor. Those who hav,
written splendid essays on its dig
nifty never tried it with their mus
cles. Seneca wrote of the beau
ties o; poverty and was ricl
enough to have written it on ia
bic of gold-but the poor woul'
rather have the table than the es
say.
Labor is q curse entailed upo
us by the transgression of on
first parents. They had a goo
thing of it. They wanted a bel
ter, and they lost it all Don
consider me as blaming the oil
folks. There is no pair of thei
descendants, young and health.
who isolated to themselves, will
out the fear of public opinion, bu
what would have done as they dit
They have always had my sympi
thy, especially since the war.
They had a splendid landed eI
tate, but nobody to work fc
them, for the negro was not the
caught and tanned. They did a
they could under the circun
stances, they begot sons. Cal
was not dignifed by his labo
Contending with cat claw brlel
and sassfras sprouts, did not in
prove his temper, and he behave
bad. And when he went to I'll
land of Nod, it was not to go
sleep, but to make a living, so
too begot sons, and put them
work.
/ Work is honorable. 1t is u
foundation of civilization, b.
there is no dignity in sweat al
toll.
-. ~.x.1 ..~oot ora t.aualfij