Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1905-04-19
BY MYRON REED.

iooh az hhShl, Dut SOnSluCiS tnCul I,
that is, weighs them. What is the
reason of poverty1 What is the
relief2 The cause that knew
not | searched OUT" says Job.
am at home playing with the
children. The children are fat and
lively. We are waiting for dinner,
no uncertainty. The evidence of
things unseen is borne in from the
kitchen. The substance of things
hoped for is broiling.
The door bell rings-not the short
peremptory signal of the letter car
rier, or of the dun, but it is feeble,
dubious ring. The door is opened
and enters the tramp" | am in
the presence of a reality. / look
him over. His coat is pinned to-
gether at the neck. His CATERS look
as if at some time they had been
worn by a minister. They have
given out at the side and run down
at the heel. He has not got a cold,
but cold has got him by the throat,
and by the lungs. He seems to be
full of chinks and the weather has
beaten in on him and whistled
through him. | listen to his story.
He is from Great Falls, N. H.. a
factory town. He has smelt oil and
breathed cotton fuzz ever since he
was eight years old. 1t is against
the law for a child under fourteen
to work in the factory, but the labor
of this child was necessary to the
support of the family. So the law
is charitable and permits it. He
has made his way here somehow.
He wants work-will shovel coal,
do anything. have to tell him
that wherever coal is shoveled there
are men ahead of him.
/ don't think he is strong enough
for a miner, his life in factory has
made him feeble. His muscles are
paper twine, good enough for doing
up small parcels of yarn, but not
good enough for a pick. Division
of labor has fitted him to one thing
well and unified him for anything
else. All his life has gone to learn
to do one thing, and now all he has
to show for it is a discharge.
/ can remember when every vii
lage had shops, where the whole of
a thing was made. A man made a
wagon, or an AK, or a horseshoe.
Now a man in a big city, only
makes a piece of a thing, the twen-
tieth part of thing. He is fitted
to do that, but alone he is not able
to make the whole of a thing. He
is only good in combination. Alone
he is helpless. Suppose dray
horse out of a job should apply at
Jewell Park for a position as quar-
ter horse. Maud S. is not good for
street car purposes. The race horse
is a result of the breeding of cen
turies. 1t requires ages to make
sheep dog into a shepherd dog. He
cannot change works with pointer.
To fit this factory hand for the fac
tory untitled him for ANYTHING else.
To surrender one special skill and
learn another requires time; with
out food a man can starve in nine
days. Nine days is not enough time
to learn a new trade. 1t is in max
ing the transition from one kind OF
labor to another that man becomes
a tramp. Even to saw wood for
wages requires practice; there is a
skill in that, even in the art of
chopping and of plain saving. Does
not man become a chronic tramp as
he becomes an invalid, as shoes
wear out gradually1 He asks for
work and does not get it; he asks
for food, at first with reluctance,
but il is easier the second time. He
hardens to the business. The
hand of little employment hath the
daintier sense" / look at my Wis
itor. He is dirty, uncombed, un-
pleasant to every sense. The wear