The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1888-09-22

BIC hucW you WASH {. Slft-
inys.
Labor and Thought
1T is only by labor" says Ruskin,
shat thought can be made healthy, and
only by thought that labor can be made
happy" Now, if the latter part of this
dictum be the truth, then the modern
processes of industry are going the
wrong way, for surely the tendency of
every inventive improvement is to take
from the worker the little thinking
which he had previously to do and to
transfer the seeming equivalent of that
thought to the machine. Suppose q
man of the olden times digged in the
earth. He delved with some degree of
pleasure, for in his mind there stood .
concept of the structure which would
some day rise out of the excavation in
which he then toiled. The dreadful
Organization of labor" had not begun.
But how is it nowadays? Look over
there at that gang of men, standing in
the morning mist and smoke of q great
city. They are waiting for Z o'clock to
come. The man of long ago would
have begun at ono Ask one of these
present laborers what thing is about to
be builded. He will stare at you w.
cantly. How should lie know, he won
ders. Would the owner or architect
ever speak to him about it? When 7
o'clock comes, he raises his pick slowly,
holds it q certain time in the air, and
brings it to the earth with the minimum
expenditure of tissue. Or, he puts his
shovel into the sodden ground, pushes
It to the minimum shovelfu], raises Il
ct the slowest rate of motion for which
the contractor will pay money, and lays
the small cargo on the wagon With the
most carefully calculated interim of.
total inaction. Why does he proceed
with such elaboration? Because he d
not making anything. He il not truly
lAboring. The Wild Indian with all the
horrors which Nature inflicted on him
svas . noble creature. This laborer
'msy DO digging under the Peabody Of
the Cooper Institute. He may be pre-
pairing for Girard College. He may bs
making ready for tho Washington or
the Lick observatory. Il il not cruelf
knowledge and light and peace are to
come nom il Ill, and Jet where are tho
knowledge and the light for this
vTetched man, who this morning sees
but dimly the hour with the cold din.
ner In the bucket and Who can hardly
hope night will ever come at all. Obi
you Genius OF Progress, hasten your
rewards, for the millions are Offering q
sacrifices, and the full precipitation OF
the destroying gods is ever affair of!
Yet the man Of labor still holds 10
himself many Of his old rights. saw
. mason at work in the cellar. His
trowel rang out the march of the hours:
the drawers of water mixed his cement
and beclouded the air with the recreant
atoms that were escaping from the
great temple. And as the days passed.
the scaffoldings rose higher and higher.
until ten, eleven, twelve stories were
piled above my low line of vision, and
the mason's trowel-ring came Is tho
twitter Of the swallows from the lantern
OF the spire near by. Ho! must not
this mason's heart have something Of
his noble calling in it? Must he not
g he looks against the western storm
cloud, defy it in the walls of his vast
fabric, which stand for him-the me-
tempsychosis of his heart and hope2
This, then, is labor, heaven-given, the
only boon for which man will ever in
secret remain thankful. though he re-
vile it by day and by night.
l cannot bring myself to believe that
every man upon this earth should not
thoroughly understand the work he il
doing. I wish he might know it 60
veil that he should see its usefulness.
Give o human being only this little
satisfaction, and he or she would work
with q cheerful hand. Can any Office
Be more trying upon the sense of ease
than the duties of q nurse? Yet does
not every Nurse Put forth efforts which
can never Ike reluited with money? Do
hot the workers in ten thousand cali
ings add 20 the thing nominated in the
bond some little painstak,ng which dis
closes their secret the secret that they
love ther work rather because it fills .
place in the sun Of earthly endeavor
than because they themselves expect to
profit by the extra exertion? Did tho
man who mounted the cabinet of z. Zoo
humming-birds in the museum Of Cen.
trail Park, in New York City. expect
return in cash for his toll? Did Pas
teur OF Koch or Ferran expect to sall
the microbes by the pair il they should
succeed in branding aud breeding
them? / a imagine that il . ma1
only understood the, datum and plan of
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