The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-05-03
THE POETRY OF LABOR.
A Picturesque Side To tho Operations OF
Hodmen and Eriekiayers,

Ono realizes the dignity and especial
ly the poetry Of labor and catches tho
meaning of some things that Walt
Whitman has said by watching the
workers Of this town ON bright, cool
March morning The word bithe seems
to convey the aspect of the scene, it is
so full of sunshine and motion aud
wholesome activity. There is II great
structure rising ON west side number
ed street, and it is so situated that tho
morning sun floods tho wholo plot soon
to Ee inclosed by tho rising walls, That
sunlit paralelogram presents most de-
lightful scene to the sympathetic eye.
Only tho front wall and the side party
walls have as yet risen above tho foun-
dations, so that tho whole interior is
visible from the rear. What one secs on
tho ground is mainly tho preparation
for what is going on where the walls
rise. There arc men mixing mortar
with long push and pull motions of tho
arms and back. There are hod carriers
Fastening in unordered sourry for bricks
and mortar at tho center of tie inclos-
ure and then moving in orderly file to-
ward the several walls. There arc men
here and there plying hammers to mako
ready ladders and scaifolding against
tho tie when tho walls shall have risen
too high for tho approaches already pro-
vided
As the hod carriers l0boriously climb
the ladders one notes that they arc clad
in blue jumpers, in overalls of ono color
or another, in the rude reddish hats that
men of their calling often wear. Now
and then stripe Of red flannel shirt
shows at tho waist The figures are
heavy and slow on the upward journey,
but nimble enough on tho way down.
You may recognize new hand by his
care and awkwardness. His muscles are
not yet trained to mechanical certainty,
and he moves with caution. One can al
most guess the age of those shabby fig
ures as they move up and down the lad
ders, never pausing, never Sinking, al
ways bearing upon calloused shoulders
the full tale of bricks or the full weight
of mortar. They fill their hods with al
most incredible swiftness and fairly fall
over one another to reach the brick pile
first. But the steadying effect of the
load is shown in the orderly march of
the upward moving hodmen. One real
ICES that hard times have disciplined
the men into giving full and oonsoien-
tious days work for their pay.
Even 300 feet away one seems to note
the difference of dress, movement aud
manner between the skilled workmen
laying the bricks and the unskilled hod
carriers. The former are neatly dressed
for the most part in whole white over
alls. They move about their work easily
and gracefully with quick, deft hands.
Almost no sound comes from the walls
save the metallic ring and scrapo of the
trowel and the tap of its handle upon
the brick Just set in it's bed Of dark
brown mortar. Now and then an indis-
tinguishable word of direction floats
downward from the last course of bricks.
The hodrnen are equally silent. 1t is a
pantomino of busy labor, almost rhyth-
mic in it's movements The whose scene
is full OF silent grace, and not without
the charm of color so often missing
from human activities in America In
eloquent testimony to the effectiveness
of the work rise the SO far finished
walls with clean right lines, horizon
tai and vertical, smooth plane surfaces
and the serried teeth of the brick arches,
with the charm of curves never to be
destroyed, no matter how rough the ma
terial of the structure New York Sun.