Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1885-03-01
.. .. 4. 4.

TEXT: lsi.h XII, Z, and Marx xiii: "So the car
/ renter encouraged the goldsmith, ana ne tnA.
snoetheth With the hammer him tnai smos th ne
anvil. fayipg IL Is ready for the soldering, ana ne
fastened il with nails In q sure place that IL snouit
NOT be moved. Is not this carpenter the son Oh
joseph
We find from an examination of the rec
ords of ancient history that the inventive
powers of men" were called into exercise at
a very early period of human history by the
necessities OF mankind. According to the
testimony of sacred history, Cain was the
FIRST man who built q fortified city and dweit
in it. His descendants, Jubal Cain, IN
| vented musical instruments, and Tubas
| Cain invented the art of making brass or
| copuer, while the descendants of Seth were
the astronomers oftheir day, and they have
| left their discoveries engraved on tablets OF
| brick and stone. Babylon, Egypt, Assyria,
Persia, Phunicia, Cspadoscis, Rome, Greece
and Carthage-indeed, all the great nations
| of antiouity-hsve all had a certain number
of artisans or mechanics. There were their
workers in wood, copper, iron, gold, silver,
the gems, ivory and fine glass, garments OF
silk and fine linen, with innumerable works
of art in B~abylonia, Egypt, Asia, and Rome,
were the product of native or enslayed me-
cbanical talent.
TIE republic of Athens drew a large part
of her revenue from the silver mines OF
| Laurium and Thrace. This was ap.
piled to repairing the buildings walls and
forts of the city.
The Egyptians obtained gold from the
deep mines by applying fire to the larger
and harder stones, while the softer were
broken with picks and chisels, pounded into
small pieces in stone mortars and atterward
ground to a fine powder. which was spread
upon a table where the metal was taken from
the dross by washing and d~ampening with
a sponge.
The smelling furnaces of the a~ucients for
making iron were built of clay. They were
FIVE feet high, in the shape of a pear. There
is an opening in front, which is built at the
beginning and torn down at the end OF
every smelling operation. The bellows is
made of goat skin, with a reed ring inserted
in a tube which goes into the center of the
furnace. The inside is filled with charcoal
and a lighted coal is then introduced. A
little Of the ore is put in at a time, carefully
covered with charcoal. After four or five
hours hard work at the bellows the door is
broken down and the bloom is taken from
the bottom of the furnace with tongs.
The Arumdelian marbles tell US that iron
was known one hundred and Lightweight
years befor the Trojan war, or B. C.. 1870,
though others give it a much later date.
Homer mentions iron in the following
lines:
And as when Armades temperS in the ford,
Tho kaan-adpad DOlp aye. or the shining sword
The red hot metal Kisses In the lake,
Thus in the eyeball misses the ~plunging stake.
Under tie Jewish law every father was
obliged to give his son a trade OF some
kind. Trades, as mechanical occupations
Of different sorts, have been considered as
necessary to the comfort of men in all
periods Of the worlds history. They have
been the supporters of national existence
and national prosperity in all times; hence
he mechanic with bis implements was a
necessary factor in the society and c%onstitu,
ton OF monarchial government; and though
ostracised from the higher grades of society
in the East by the baneful influence Of
caste; though compelled to labor in the
depths of the earth in chains and poverty,
that the rest of men might get the comforts
and luxuries of life as the fruits of his hon
est toll. The mechanics from the brick
yards, stone auarries, mines, furnaces, looms
and ship yards of ancient and mighty IA
tons were contributing their proportion Of
necessary strength and comfort to the vari.
GUS kingdoms in which they toiled and
without their humble but potent toilers
back of their mighty armies and splendid
civilization, the magnificent empires of the
old world never could have maintained their
power as they did.
During the ages of oppression and pow,
erty, through which the mechanics OF the
old world were passing, God was slowly pre-.
pairing the world to accept the liberation OF
its most valued servant, the mechanic,
and to grant him his natural and God ap-
praised place in society, as the equal to any
other class of men, with the same order OF
intellect and moral character.
Philosophy, christianity and art, have all
had their martyrs, whose tears, blood and
ashes have been the precursors of a pros,
porous era, to each and all of them. So
mechanism has had its proportion Of noble
men, whose bitter, scalding tears, shed on
the hard rock of Egyptian mines as they
toiled in darkness and WEAKNESS, were the
dew drops that kept the germ of hope alive
in the breasts OF their fellow men. The
vast brick yards and stone q~uarries Of the
Pharaoes were the baptistries where
mechanism received her baptism of blood,
and consecrated by it went forth free from
her former shackles to enrich other and
mightier nations, and gladden. the breast Of
men everywhere with the products Of her
toll. The terrible prosecutions and untold
sufferings of mechanics in the eastern hem
isphere have been the seeds Of a golden
harvest for the workers Of all associations
to be gathered by the grandest men of their
class the world has ever seen, the free
American worker on the grandes! continent
n the world, the continent Of North
America.
Gentlemen OF the order, your occupations
have a grand and glorious history, whose
ulster has streamed down the avenues Of the
ages, rejecting happiness, prosperity and
strength on men and nations. You have
the right to glory in your occupations
for by them you are getting and giving com
fort and prosperity to your native land
Your influence for good is felt at home and
abroad.
First-The divine Brotherhood of Labor
There is no such thing as absolute indepen'
dence in this world. A wise and omnipo
tent Creator has made Us all relative beings
and in all the relations and occupations Of
this life. This primary idea Of mutual de
pendence is manifested to q greater or les'
extent. Doubtless recognizing this great
general principle of mutual dependence a.
as the fundamental basis ola national, in
~ternational, commercial, mechanical and
domestic prosperity, you have made it sPe
cifcal and incorporated it in the significant
title Of your order, The United Order o.
American Mechanics. There are two ele
ments of this title that I want to call partic
ular attention to at this time.
l.. 1t is o united order. A union fol
laudable purposes. presupposesthe possession
Of harmonious and commendable principles