Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-04-19
THE POETRY OF LABOR.
A Picturesque Side TO the Operations Of
Hodmen and Bricklayers.


One realizes the dignity and especial
" the poetry of labor and catches the
meaning of some things that Walt
Whitman has said by watching the
workers of this town OH bright, cool
March morning. The word blithe seems
to convey the aspect of the scene, it is
so full of sunshine and motion and
wholesome activity. There is great
structure rising on west side number
ed street, and it is so situated that the
morning sun floods the whole plot soon
to be inclosed by the rising walls That
sunlit parallelogram presents Almost de-
lightful scene to the sympathetic eye.
Only the front wall and the side party
walls have as yet risen above the foun-
dations, 90 that the whole interior is
visible from the rear. What one sees on
the ground is mainly the preparation
for what Is going OH where the walls
rise There are men mixing mortar
with long push and pull motions OF the
arms and back. There are bod carriers
Fastening in unordered sourry for bricks
and mortar at the center of the inclos-
ure and then moving in orderly file TO-
ward the several walls. There are men
here and there plying hammers to make
ready ladders and scaffolding against
the tie when the walls shall have risen
too high for the approaches already pro-
vided.
As the bod carriers laboriously climb
the ladders one notes that they are clad
in blue jumpers, in overalls of one 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 the waist The figures are
heavy and slow on the upward journey
but nimble enough on the way down.
You may recognize a now 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 fg-
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 moFing hodmen. One real
ICES that hard times have disciplined
the men into giving full and conscien-
tious days work for their pay
Even 800 feet away one seems to note
the difference of dress, movement and
manner between the skilled workmen
laying the bricks and the unskilled bod
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 scrape of the
trowel and the tap Of its handle upon
the brick just set In its bed Of dark
brown mortar. Now and then an indis-
tinauishable word Of direction floats
downward from the last course OF bricks
The hodrnen are equally silent 1t is a
pantomine of busy labor, almost rhyth-
mic in its 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