The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1884-10-16
The Mechanic.


can.
The Mechanic.
A man who is thorough master Of
a trade carries his capital in his
head. He is Independent, and
should be selfreliant, as his services
viii always be in requisition, unless,
perchance, he has drifted into some
section Of the world where trade
and manufactures are in a state of
Gecadence. 1t may be an excellent
thing to endow a youth with a
splendid education, but often we
find such young men failures in a
business way. But there is no ex-
cuse for a first-class mechanic or
engineer ever being found in such
an unfortunate plight. The man
possessing a good scientific or me-
chanical education who can not
make his way successfully through
life must be composed of very poor
material. The good mechanic
needs no golden ladder to aid him
in rising to success, nor is there oc-
casion for his reliance on social
standing, or on the good offices Of
influential friends to open a path to
fortune. Indeed, instead of seeking
for friends they will seek him. An
expert galyanizer few weeks since
was thrown out of employment, and
scarcely had the doors of his mill
been closed ere there came Ia tele-
gram from a mill 1000 miles away
urgently requesting his services
there. A representative of an ex-
tensive mandatory, in speaking of
good mechanics recently, said ::
1--WE still have difficulty in obtain
ing all the expert help we need.
This matter sometimes assumes a
serious aspect, and we fear often
that we can not run our works to
their best advantage for lack of the
proper assistance"
We here speak of the higher grade
of workmen-of men who are pro-
fcient and who have mastered their
calling; but mechanics who have
not risen to eminence, but have ac-
quired a good reputation, are in
most favorable positions, far better
than the horde of ill-paid clerks,
salesmen and collectors, who have
chosen a calling that will save them
from beginning their hands with
dirt and permitting them to wear
good clothes. The Boston Com
mercial Bulletin, in speaking of the
Importance of the position of the
mechanic, very foreibly remarks:
each ensuing day makes more
prominent the fact that we are
upon the time when The mechanic
is master. We have crowded pro-
fessions and ill-filled trades. A
chance to fill the position of sub
assistant clerk in a wholesale house
is eagerly grasped at by a hundred
applicanJs,sthoug the wages re-
ceived be scarcely more than "a
chance to learn the business" Let
a master workman try to obtain an
apprentice at three times the sala-
ry offered the clerk, and his appli-
cants will be poor alike in quantity
and quality. A skilled workman in
any trade need never wait for hire;
be is eagerly sought after by hun
dred employers; he is independent
of the condition of the market; the
skill and cunning of his hand and
eve are too valuable to lose, and
must be paid whether the products
are slowly or rapidly consumed. If
business ceases, the master hand is
seized by some rival house,
which knows and values the pro-
duct of his skill. He who would
crush down the obstacles to success
in our own days must have as well
as the wit to seesthe crevice the
strength to deal the blow. This is
an age of the steam engine, and it
is the engineer, not the conductor,
who is master"
The men who can do a piece of
exact mechanical work, or who can
invent a successful working ma
chine or plan its erection, is val
lable member of society. He is a
producer, and the world is both |
richer and better for his presence.
His calling demands fine develop |
ment of intellectual thought, and
the mental conception re-
luisite to do a fine bit of mechani-
cal work may not be of the same |
high order as that required of a
sculptor or painter, yet it is of a
high degree of merit, and may |
equal, in epecial circumstances, the |
efforts of the best artist in any Of |
5he various schools. It is a narrow
minded man who despises the me-
,hanic because of the surroundings
If his labor. Those who look down |
IN him are generally men of inferi-
,r intelligence, who possess a poor |
conception of what is worthy of adj
niration, and whose esteem would |
,e oflittle credit to any one.-Jew-
,ler's Journal