The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-11-20
THE GOSPEL OFTOIL
Joaquin Miller on the Dig
nifty of Labor.
TO LIVE WE MUST WORK.
When We Get Above Toll That Day We
Shall Surely Die, Individually
and Collectively.
Written for THE MORNING CALI

"And the Lord planted a garden east
ward In Eden. and there he put the man
whom he had formed. And the
Lord took the man and put him into the
garden to dress it and keep it.
No, no sermon, although the text is a
tempting one. and we ali know that solid,
hearty sermon on the subject OF toll is saoly
needed all over this broad new world.
little more than O century ago the
Spaniard, a bold and enterprising man
then. sailed these waters and gave his
gaudy flag 10 these winds. He recorded,
and so did the first English nayigators,
that the only human creatures that pos
sessed these vast, fertile fields were the
lowest Of the low. naked, homeless, witleSs,
who were too lazy TO either hunt, fish or
fight, but subsisted from day 10 day On
roots, reptiles and crawling things OF the
earth.
And vet in less than a century where was
the brave and manly SpaDiard? L2Zness,
laziness ard the cigarette had overthroWn
him. He lay in the sun on his blanket
sucking his cigarette, or Ioaled against
wall rubbing elbows with the Digger Indian.
He had forgotten TO dress and keep the gar
den as God had commanded. His only am
bition was to dress aud keep himself for
the first half century, and in the next half
century he even forgot that OF was 1t the
smoke Of the cigarette, SO binding him that
he could not see when way 10 go, ana SO
sat down and died?
on. if | could only get the preachers to
prearh the gospel Of toll. to read truly and
exactly and all the time the text that In
the sweat of thy face-not In the sweat OF
another mans face-shalt thou eat bread.
lam neither wise enough nor coed enough
TO say that this command was written by
the finger of God. But do know that 1t is
the law of nature, forty-fold more absolute
than ever was law OF Mede or PERSIAN.
Whatever is useless in nature must perish.
And what is more useless than lazy man.
except il may be luxurious nation? And
il is the unanimous verdict OF all history
that whenever a nation approaches luxury
il has passed the u O'Clock OF its existence
and is rotten unto death.
What splendid man that old DutchmRn,
the first one OF that richest family In
America, must have been rowing his own
boat with his bTawny arms as he carried
compost from the stables of New \ ork to
the gardens of Brooklyn. How content and
happy 10 know that be was helping TO fer.
tilize roses and feed the hungry! be was a
giant in uody and in brain, founder of
churches and colleges, closing his own eyes
with his own hand when done with this
worlds work Was not his strength OF
body and mind due mainly 10 his broad and
democratic disposition TO accept the primal
curse and eat MS bread in the sweat Of bis
own face? For 10 in less than two genera
tons we see the family of the great fortune
builder dying out in luxury and laziness,
even employing Chin Chin Chauncey to dc
its talking. The story CT the founder OF
Astoria, ana those who come after him. Is
much The same. if popular report be true.
But whether reports be true or not the
like conclusions are so tue of all our
''new-Tich' families. as the French cal
them, that they must serve to point G
moral"
/ passed over this same ground few
years ago, while digging in my fields here
with my own hands day after day, year
after year in fact. in a magazine article
Papers IN the States took it I'D and called il
"Preaching to the Oakland preachers. ="
Not so. l was preaching. if preaching al
ali, to all preachers of all places, to ali
priests. all poets, to all people, yet most
especially to all preachers, begging them to
preach the gospel of toll as written In the
Book. as written on any leaf, page or
parable Of nature.
Now. had spoken in nearly every pulpit
In Oakland, Jew or Gentle; oftentimes
after hard days work with my horses,
often wet. dripping wet with toll But