The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-02-10

we'll DDullQs tIC AVOA ~
the chandelier is well swung, the work
is grandly accomplished. BE not among
those employers who never say any
thing to their employees except TO swear
at them. Do not be afraid You will
make that mechanic so pulled up and
arrogant he will again want TO
be seen with working apron or In shirt
sleeves, for before the night comes Of
that day when you praise him there
will be a lawsuit brought against him
because he did not finish his work as
soon as he promised 1T, forgetful Of the
fact that his wife has been sick and
two of his children have died OF scar
let fever and he had a felon on a finger
Of the right hand. Denounced perhaps
because the paint is SO very faint in
color, o recognizing the fact that the
mechanic himself has been cheated out
of the right ingredients, and that he
did not find out the trouble in time, or
scolded at because he seems to have
famed a horse by unskillful shoeing.
when the horse has for months had
SPAWN or ringbone or springhalt. You
feel you have the right to find fault
with a mechanic when he does i'll. Do
you ever praise a mechanic when he
does we'll?
Encourage the farmers. They come
into your stores, you meet them in the
city markets, you often associate with
them in the summer months. ONCE
seekers go through the land and they
stand on political platforms, and they
tell the farmers the story about the in
dependent life Of a farmer, giving fiat
terry where hey ought to give sympa-
thy Independent of what? L was
brought up on a farm, I worked on a
farm, 1 know all about it. l hardly
saw a city until I was grown, and L
tell you that there are no class OF peo-
pie in this country who have 1t harder
and who more need your sympathy
than farmers. Independent of what? OF
the curculio that strings eha peach
trees, of the rust in the wheat, of the
long rain with. the rye w indie
pendent of the ~grasshopper, of the To-
Gust, Of the army worm, of the potato
bug? Independent of the drought that
burns up the harvest? Independent of
the crow with the hollow horn, or the
sheep with the foot rot, or the pet
horse with a nail in his hOOf? indie
pendent of the cold that freezes out
the winter grain? Independent of the
snow bank out of which he must shovel
himself? Independent of the cold
weather when he stands thrashing his
numbed fingers around his body to keep
them from being frosted? Independent
of the frozen ears and the frozen feet?
Independent of what: Fancy farmers
who have made their fortunes in the
city and go out in the country to build
houses with all the modern improve
ments and make farming a luxury may
not need any solace, but the yeomanry
who get their living out of the soil
and who that way have to clothe their
families and educate their children and
pay their taxes and meet the interest
on mOrtgaged farmS-Such men find a
terrific struggle. I demand that office
seekers and politicians fold up their
gaseous and imbecile speeches about
the Independent life Of a farmer and
substitute some word Of comfort drawn
from the fact that they are free from
city conventiona1ities and city epidem-
les and city temptations.
NEED SYMPATHY, NOT FLAT
Terry.
My most vivid remembrance Of boy
hood is of my father coming in on a
very hot day from the harvest field
and seating himself on the dOOrsill be-
cause he was too faint to get into the
house, the perspiration streaming from
: forehead and from chin, and my moth
er trying to resuscitate him with a cup
of cold water, which he was too faint
to hold in his own lips, while saying
to US: Don't be frightened. There's
nothing the matter; a little tired, that's
all; a little tired" Ever since that day,
when I near people talking about the
/ independent life of a farmer I see
through the sham. Farmers want not
your batteries, but your sympathies.
/ Encourage the doctors. You praise
the doctor when he brings you up from
an awful crisis of disease, but do you
praise the doctor when, through skill
full treatment of the incipient stages of
disease, he keeps you from sinking
down to the awful crisis? There is a
great deal Of cheap and heartless wit
about doctors, but I notice that the
| people who get off that wit are the first
to send for a doctor when there is any
| thing the matter. There are those who
undertake to say in our day that doc
tors are really useless. One man has
written a book entitled, Every Man
| His Own Doctor" That author ought
to write one more book entitled, "Ev-
| cry Man His Own Undertaken" "Oh,"
| says some one, physicians in constant
presence of pain get lard hearted" Dc
| they? The most celebrated surgeon of
| the last generation stood in a clinical
| department of one Of the New York
medical colleges, the students gathered
in the amphitheatre to see a very pain
full operation on a little child. The old
surgeon said: Gentlemen, excuse me
if I retire. These surgeons can do this
as we'll as I can, and as I get older 1t
gives me more and more distress to see
pain"
Physicians nave so many h~ardships,
so many interruptions, so many annoy
ances I am glad they have so many en-
couragements. All doors open to them.
They are welcome to mansion and to
! cot. Little children shout when they see
them coming down the road, and the
aged, recognizing the step, look up and
say, Doctor, is hat you?" They stand
between our families and h grave,
fighting back the troops Of Disorder
that come up from their encampInent
by the cold river. No one hears such
thanks as the doctor hears. They are
eyes to the blind, they are feet to the
lame, their path is strewn with the
benedictions of those whom they have
befriended.
IN THE HOUR OF ANXIETY.
One day there was a dreadful fore
boding in our house. All hope was gone
The doctor came four times that day,
The children put away their toys and
all walked on tiptoe, and at the least
sound said Hush" How loudly the
o1ao1y Ala fiol- and how the h9niSrpr