The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1899-10-19
THE MAN With
THE HOE. "
WRONG DoERS DISPA1R..
Honest Tolls Reward.
By G. GRosvENoR DAVE.

N 0A"A NOIuau Issued his bOOl
on degeneration, proving to his owl
satisfaction that most men are FOOLS n,
worse, the sweeping way in which b,
wrote 1t carried with it certain amour
OF conviction and many a good man
began examining himself to see if in
him were any signs of the Iunacv tba
Nordau seemed to see everywhere
Those with good sound sense in them
soon came to see that Nordau was sim
ply making problem-and very large
one-out OF comparatively trifing cir
cumstances. It reminds one of the
gentleman farmer who gave much
study to the subject OF potato bugs and
finally decided that potato bug wal
not to be found on any other than q
potato plant. Consequently when he
crossed ferry one day and saw potato
pug crawling on mans coat, he made
big problem out of this little matter
because it refuted his theory. Happy
was he, however, that after all the mans
name was Murphy.
We are all occasionally apt to take
some little tact and so magnify it that
for the time being it shuts out all the
rest of the world with its truths and
ITS falsehoods, It's problems and its So
lutlons. To this extent we become
mono-maniacs such as Nordau delights
to discover, but If given little time
most OF US come back toa quiet rec
ognitlon OF the fact that one symptom
does not make disease and that one
pimple does not make a plague.
One is lead into this train OF thought
by the tremendous interest and SYM
pathy that were expressed on first
reading "The Man With the Hoe" by
Edwin Markham. This poem regard
Ing down-trodden labor swept every
thing before it In the way of argument
from California to the East. The de-
scription of the man with the hoe hor-
rifed us and in our first horror we did
not stop to think whether the descirp-
tion was correct or no.
Bowed by the weight OF centuries he
leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground.
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the
world.
Who made him dead to rapture and de-
spair,
A thing that grieves not and never
hopes,
Stolid and stunned, brother to the
Who loosened and let down this brutal
jaw?
Whose YVES the hand that s1anted back
this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light with
In this brain?
Then as certainly as sunshine fol-
lows shower SO certainly did hundreds
and thousands, after the first excite
ment was past, fall to questioning
themselves as to whether In all their
lives they had met such a man as he
described or whether upon ourselves
labor and lots of it had anything like
the effect Markham said it had. If we
had to admit that we had seen such
creature, we remembered that he
had been called feeble-mlnded by his
fellows, and that far from his being the
product of modern day labor he was
more likely the product OF some
| modern day sin showing out in the
son the ignorance or neglect OF the
parents.
A healthy revulsion has now get IN
regarding Markham's sad poem and OF
al sides haye there been efforts In botf
prose and poetry to refute his statements
The man with the hoe among us
the man with the power. His hot
NAV indeed bend his back, but at tn
end of the hoeing he can straighten uE
as we'll as any man, for he is the equa
of any man. He may indeed haYe
hard task keeping down the weeds o.
the ground that he tills, but he ills VIII
has brains enough also to attack VIII
the clear vision of free-born free-thlnk
i,g american the weeds that occasion
ally grow up in our political neio'
His open air life makes him strong u
act and stern to perform. His abliit
to read brings to the door OF his modes
home all the news of the world an'
many of the great thoughts OF u
great men that have transformed
world of savagery into one OF consta'
ascent and change, and constant chang
Q because of constant ascent.
4 Out upon us If we reyiie at @ ,aoo
q To live, in the best sense, Is 10 laoo