The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1902-07-03

Il uting member and able to help them
G l think this makes a man out of bo
g sooner than almost anything else, an
+ u real man, too, if there be any germ
d of true manhood in him. IL is every
| thing to feel that you are useful.
s 81 have had to deal with great sums
c Many millions of dollars have passe,
through my hands. But the genuin,
8 satisfaction had from that one dolla
l and twenty cents outwcighs any subsc
quenC pleasure in money-gctting. II
was the direct reward of honest manual
labor 1t represented week Of YER,
hard work, so hard that but for the ain,
and end which sanctiicd il, slavery
might not be too strong term tC
describe it.
For q lad of twelve to rise and
breakfast every morning, except the
blessed Sunday morning, and 90 into
the streets and find his way to the fac
tory and begin work while it was "',l
dark outside, and not be released until
after darkness came again in the even
ing, forty minutes interval only being
allowed at noon, was terrible task.
But | was young and had my
dreams, and something within always
told me that this would not, could not ,
should not last should some day get
a better position. Beside this, | felt
myself no longer mere boy, but quite
% little man. and this made me happy.
" a change soon came, for a kind
Old Scotchman, who knew some of our
relatives, made bobbins and took me
| in his factory before | was thirteen.
but here for time it was even worse
than in the factory, because was set
to fire boilerin the cellar, and actual
ly to run the small steam engine which
drove the machinery. The firing Of the
boiler was all right, for fortunately we
did not use coal, but the refuse wooden
chips, and l always liked TO work in
wood. But the responsibility of keep
ing the water right and of running the
engine, and the danger of my making
mistake and blowing the whole fac
tory to pieces, caused too great strain.
and often awoke and found myself
sitting up in bed through the night
| trying the steam gauges. But | never
told them at home that | was having a
hard tussle.' No no everything
must be bright to them.
ITO Noo a pOlHI VI ilOllol, 1OT
every member of the family was work
ing hard except, of course, my little
brother, who was then child, and we
were telling each other only ali the
bright things. Besides this, no man
would whine and give up--hc would
die first
There was no servant in our FAM
lily, and several dollars per week were
earned by 'the mother by binding
shoes after her daily work was done
Father was also hard at work in the
factory. And could | complain ?
My kind employer, John Hay.
peace to his ashes soon relieved me of
the undue strain, for he needed some
one to make out bills and keep his ac-
counts, and finding that | could write
a plain school boy hand, and could
cipher | became his only clerk. But
still had TO work hard upstairs in the
factory, for the clerking took but little
time.
You know how people moan about
poverty as being n great evil, and it
seems to be accepted that if people had
only plenty of money and were rich
they would he happy and more useful,
and get more out of life.
" AS a rule, there is more genuine
satisfaction, truer hfe, and more OBJ
tanned from life in the humble cottages
of the poor than in the palaces of the
rich. ! always pity the sons AMI daugh-
ters Of rich men who are attended by
servants, and have governesscs at
later age, but am glad to remember
that they do not know what they have
missed!
They have kind fathers and moth
ers, too, and think that they en- Joy the
sweetness of these blessings TO the
fullest, but this they cannot do for
the poor boy who has in father con-
stant companion, tutor and model, and
in his mother-holy name.-his nurse,
teacher, guardian angel, saint all in
one, has O. richer, more precious for
tune in life than any rich mans son
who is not so favored can possibly
know, and compared with which all
| other fortunes count for little.
" 1t is because l know how swe CT
and happy and pure the home of hon
est poverty ls, how free from perplex-
ing care, from social envies and emu
lations, how loving and how united its
members may be in the common inter-
est of supporting the family, that 1
sympathize with the rich mans boy
and congratulate the poor mans boy;
and it is for these reasons that from
the ranks of the poor 80 many strong,
eminent, self-reliant men have always
sprung and always must spring.
{" If you will read the list of tho
'lmmortals who were not born to die, ,
will find that most Of them have been
born TO the precious heritage of pow
erty.
{" 1t seems, nowadays, a matter Of
universal desire that poverty should
be abolished. We should be quite
willing to abolish luxury, but to abol-
ish honest, industrious, self-denylng
poverty would be to destroy the soil
upon which man kind produces the vir-
tues which enable our race to reach a
still higher civilization than it now
| pOsseSses