The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-30

''But you are too young for philosopher"
venturcd to suggest "Well," he began and a
far away look Of mingled trouble and peace came
into his eyes, perhaps 1 am, as the years come
and 60, but when man lives two years in one,
as l used to. it doesn't take long to grow
pretty old before you know it." Again q shadow
of something swept over his face, and almost as
quickly disappeared. I had caught him una
wares while mis- faithful Philosophy was astray.
Summoning his comforter, he was ready for me-
and look of contentment succeeded whatever
may have been in his honest face. He was
ready enough for me now and showed It, Il
said" he went on. shat had once been used to
living two years in one, and so l was" lie
paused for moment, then starting again, ener-
getically-"Do you see this cash. this seam, or
whatever you may call it, in my left
cheek, extending from my eye almost
to the corner of my mouths
That came in one night, and was as visible next
morning as though some enemy had drawn a
knife-edge through its furrow. 1t was an enemy,
l afterwards learned, though did not know it
then, and tried to rub it out feeling that it had
been caused by lying with that cheek to the pill
low. could not rub it out that day, nor the
next and it has persistentiy stuck to me since.
mat summer grew ten years older, and much
more than ten years wiser and don't know but
that on the whole the distress suffered, for it
was real, has been more than compensated in
what l have learned Life has been better
since, and l know better how to enjoy it.
Even pain has been pleasanter, for Philosophy,
b0 To hoe I'D n,,ft ho
sides of it, the places to touch it without re-
wounding. and, best of all, how to bury it, weep
over 1t. and turn away and find surcease of
sorrow. Strangc-sn't it9-that, with crows
feet gathering about my eyes, and more than a
few white hairs asserting themselves in beard
and hair, / should look On the world with
klndlier, if not younger eyes than ever before.
| tell you, my friend have learned as much at
the feet of Philosophy as you have at those of
Gamaliel. 1 don't want cash in my right
cheek, and l mean so to philosophize my way
through the world as to never worry about
the unavoidable, nor to borrow trouble. I am
happy and mean to continue So" And thus he
went on, soothed and soothingly.
~
The Philosopher is panied to hear of threatened
labor strikes. He remembers the thousands of
wives and babes already scantily clothed and
fed, it may be. who would undoubtedly suffer if
the boys should 60 out on strike. There is
many household now where comfort and happi-
ness reign where hunger, and distress, and dis
trust would come in event the husband and
father quit work. With all its poverty and its
deprivations, the world is full of happiness.
The cottage of the brakeman and of him from
the enginehouse and machine-shop is that of a
prince, compared with the habitations of former
generations. He dresses better, lives better and
is uetter fed than anybody under royalty of two
centuries ago. Say what you WILL in the home
of the temperate mechanic and laboring man
there is genuine happiness, and the constant
tendency is to the still greater betterment of his
condition. The world is moving in the right
direction, and each succeeding generation builds
above the preceding The secret of this is CO.
operation We may not all be rich
indeed, we may not all want to be
rich with the conditions generally attached,
but we may, every one of US, be comfortable
and happy. More than this is vanity ard vexa-
ton of spirit One hand must wash the other
Labor must support capital, and organized,
active capital must encourage and employ labor.
A grudgng spirit on either side is mutually
harmful. Labor cannot afford to wantonly or
stubbornly antagonize capital any more than
passengers could be induced to scuttle the ship
upon whose safety their passage depends.
Neither can capital oppose and grind
its employees. There must be freedom
of action either SIDE and if this be
so, matters will so adjust themselves that
vexatious labor questions will never be long in
settlement, strikes will not be needed and lock-
outs unknown.
The Philosopher has lived long enough to
observe that the professional labor reformer and
agitator never gets rich, never; nor do anv who
follow them. The laborer who thrives is the
quiet one, that one that always is about his bust
ness. punctual to the minute and conscientious
in the discharge of every duty He has noticed
that the men who are in easy circumstances to-
day are the men who made good records
when they were employees, and as a rule with
few exceptions these are the only kind of men
who have succeeded above their fellows OF
course, there are exceptions, and there are many
honest, industrious men who have failed in &C
cumulating much; but their failure has been the
result of exactly the same mishaps that tumble
down millionaires and wreck capitalists. Against
such accidents there is seemingly no safeguard.
But it pays every time to be temperate
industrious and generous. The children
of the man who does not drink
beer and loaf about saloons seldom have cause
for humiliation in comparison with others The
laborer who loves his family better than him
self, better than beer and blood, is not often the
man who has need of going on strikes, and he
is never an agitator unless he is mentally out of
balance There is too much of good in the
laborer's lot, too much genuine happiness in
company with wife and babes, to warrant a
laborer following any hare Drained ''reformer,"
who is never satisfied. Let US all be care