The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-07-24
"THE MAN WITH THE HOE"
Criticism Of the POEMS Sentiment ~
an Indiana Writer.
Maurice Thompson i'm Saturday Eveniu0

Maurice Thompson, in SATURDAY EVeniu8
Post.
THE Man with the Hoe, has MADE
strong impression upon the public MIND.
1t is forceful. both in substance ana aer IN
style, bearing in its SonorouS lines a oirecc
and compelling appeal 10 prime element
of human nature-the element OF revolt
against natures apparent injustice and Inn
poem raises in the readers mind the old
question: Is universal education possiblef
and If ii Is, would IL be justifiable! In
word. is the man with the hoe blot upon
mankinds record, or is he one of the fun
damental necessities?
in public and private about education as
lifting power, a regeneration. an awakener
of high and noble aspirations; and
IDENTIFY told that education is an
equalizer and promoter OF universal
istic look at the Man with the Hoe What
is he doing? Millet has painted him truly.
He is digger of the earth, a man who does
his back and breaking the clo6s. He stands
as a type, the honest and honorable repre-
sentative of those whose lot II is, and must
always be- to do the hard. uninspiring and
soul-banishing labors commonly regarded
as mental.
education soften the lot Of the Man with the
Hoe? Suppose we change Millets picture.
so that instead OF the sturdy. brawny. va
We have an accomplished scholar, a man
with the students stoop and the far-away
gaze of the aspiring, ambitious genius. Is
this educated Man with the Hoe as happy
as the one who inspired the painter and
called forth the poets rhymed protest?
his moments OF recreation; but Gladstone
as Maine lumberman would not have been
SO enthusiastic the year round. Ronsard
liked pottering in his garden between odes
and ballads, but as a Man with the Hoe, an.
that would have been different,
Universal education and universal BROTH
not al mil
Mans love for his fellow-man should have
no connection with equality OF knowledge,
learning: culture; yet differences of employ
ment will always and inevitably not only
enforce wide differences in opportunity and
capacity for acquiring education. but will
Danish the need and the taste for ii. A Keats
may be born a livery-stable boy-such a
birth is no more disgrace than 10 be born
a lawyers son-but education sprouts the
stalls, the managers and the currycombs, to
fiutter through a few glorious days on Par
nassus. Still. somebody must attend to the
Shall we let the stables go uncleanec. he
bitches undug the coal not mined, the pota-
toes not hoed? Or shall we force education
with all of its disqualifying. discontent-
breeding influences upon the men who must
do the lowest graes of labor? We may loosely
imagine labor equality. just as some OF US
fondy coddle the thought of brotherhood
equality; but most of US would he quite
lively in preferring the presidency of the
'nited States TO working down In a coal
me digging in a wet ditch. The differ
&c between these spheres of labor is no
feater than the difference between the
men who are content TO occupy them. And
this word content means everything.
1t may be that they who engender discon-
, tent in the hearts Of laboring men are
worse than the heartless taskmasters who
wiring the sweat pennies from the honest
muscle. At all events. education would seem
to be a poor panacea for the so-called ills
Of labor inequalities, SO long as labor is a
prime necessity TO the existence of mankind.
and is in its very nature of as many grades
and Interchangeable as fate. Love, BROTH
erhood, charity, fellowship, humane liber-
obliterate the man with the hoe until the
necessity for the labor product. of which he
is the representative sign, shall cease to ex-
ist