Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-09-16
DIGNITY OF LABOR.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE ACTIVE
BRAIN AND BUSY HAND.

The Honey Bees and the Drones
-Idleness the Mother of Mis-
chief Work Gives Zest to En-
joyment-Haprincss as We'll as
Duty Urges Us to Work.
Written for the SrASDAED by Lady Cooke, nee
| Tennessee G. Ciaffin.
1t shows the occasional perversity
OF social sentiment that the state of
least value should often be most
esteemed, that labor should be scorned
and aflluent idleness held in honor.
Thus the general ambition of those
engaged in work of any kind, and
especially in manual work, is to escape
from it, to gather riches and retire !;
for, with large class, gentleman is
not as in old times, 4 man of gentle
birth or gentle manners, but simply
one who can live without work. We
have grown SO sOrdid that wealth
oversladows all. With the multitude,
virtue, valor, learning and abilities
obtain less esteem than riches. And
even when 4 stream of titles flows
from the royal fountain of dignities,
these are almost solely bestowed upon
the very wealthy. If to preserve an
appearance of impartiality, a man Gel
ebrated !for worth or genius here and
there receives one, it is only some
scrappy thing, the slightest on the
list. 1t would be unpardonable pre-
sumption on such occasions for dis
tinguished scientists, inventors, poets,
artists, or men of letters, to put them
selves on par with plutocrats. though
the latter may be destitute of every
thing but money. But all these dis
tinctions in favor of wealth are unwise,
unjust, and therefore immoral; are
calculated to discourage and demoral-
ize the workers, and must eventually
fail to confer any honor upon their re-
cipients as soon as high-spirited men
refuse them on principle.
Intelligent and responsible work is
the privilege and glory OF man. 1t is
true in a sense that other animals
work, and some of them in communi
ties with regular and orderly division
of labor; but even so, their efforts are
instructive and invariably alike from
age to age-without progress and with
out deterioration. Man, however, can
adapt his work to all circumstances
and to all needs. He has arrived from
the flint file to the circular saw, from
the stone javelin to the Armstrong
gun, from the jade hammer to the
giant Nasmyth, and from fg-leaves tc
shot-silks. He burrows into the bow.
els Of the earth and robs it of its treas
ures, explores the bed of the sea, and
mounts aloft in mid-air beyond the
eagles highest flight. He has meas.
ured and weighed the planets, and put
the earth in a balance; has mapped
out the universe and determined the
components of the stars. Vast and
innumerable have been his achieve.
ments over the blind forces of matter
dissolving, combining, blending and
transposing, and subduing all to hi.
service, forming new substances, dis
covering new materials, and at the
same time multiplying and gratifying
human wants, pleasures, and conven.
fences. All this has been the result o
work. Brains and hands have united
for its production. The quickes,
brains, the deftest hands, have led the
way, and the Others have followed in
their rear. What we are and have to-
day form the resultant of the com
bined forces OF mind and muscle dur
ing all the past existence of humanity
All honor, then, to work and to the
workers, whether their part be high Oh
low; whether theirs are the master
minds that plan, or the patient hands
that execute. Whatever their degree
each is essential to the others, and
they to each, as Menenius Agrippa
showed the discontented Romans long
ago in his fable of the Belly and the
Members. No properly informed per
son could ever suppose it more desirable
to idle than to work, or that any man
OF worth could ever be do-nOthing
The drones OF our commonwealth
may be anything from tramps tC
Piccadilly loungers, may be beggars
or peers, but they have no moral right
to dwell amongst an industrial com.
munity. As rale, they are the pests
OF society, high and low-its roues
gamblers, proiligates, and debauchers
the disciples and apostles OF sensuality
Those marvellous insects, the honey.
bees, give a perpetual series of object.
lessons in the proper treatment OF
drones. Their remedy may be sharp
but it is very etlectual.
Idleness is the mother of mischief
and man or woman without an oc.
cupation of some sort is on the high
road to moral ruin, ii not to financial
Idleness has been the bane of woman
of the wealthy classes i'll the past, and
has seriously retarted female progress
| urn Ln., lla au.r,ad fnr tLn