Norwich bulletin., 1912-04-13
SUNDAY MORNING TALK
THE MAN WITHOUT A HOE.

Edwin Markham gave us poem that will live when he wrote ''The Man with the Hoe" The stepping peasant in Mil let's picture is made to preach a ser mon to which captains of industry the world over may well listen.
 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.
 Seldom has the hard lot of the toiler found g. more impressive voice.
 I am thinking now, however, not so much of the toiler as of him who never toils The man driven by his work realizes sufficiently the hardships of life but he who never works at all is in a worse case. Give of your pity and help to those whose labor is hard and steady but save some of it for the loafers. The man least to be enyied is the man without a hoe of any kind. There is more discomfort among loaf CTS than among laborers.
 The "happiest man" was found in a shoe factory. When I have fine lot of stock to work up and my knives are sharp l am perfectly happy" he said. His hours were long, his pay was moderate he was called to his task every morning by an memorable steam whistle Yet most of the elements of happiness were surely present in his case-fair health, steady job, a fam fly he loved and for whom he must provide. What millionaire could find more real zest in life!
 Physical labor when performed under right conditions is not an intolerable ! hardship, but generally a guarantee of health, both of mind and of body. It 1 purchases an appetite for food and for sleep that the habitually idle never 1 know It allows one the grateful sense of being a useful and productive mem 1 Der of society rather than a drone in i the hive, and that is always a satisfy | ing feeling to right-minded folk, | Moreover, labor throws into high re- i lief the hours of rest and recreation. | l like to watch the great mill gates swing open at nightfall releasing | throngs of workers and reflect what a i world of gladness is crowding into the city streets. Nothing but toll has made possible this sharp delight in rest and freedom. The loafer, whether rich or poor, the idle man about town knows little of such delight in living | as the worker may feel
 The man without hoe may well be jealous to get one at his earliest con- venience. Let him find some bit of work suitable to his powers and set tC work doing it with all his might Ii does not matter so much what partic- ular job one tackles as that it be tackled heartily. Whether one's garden patch be large or small it must be freed from stones and stumps and weeds. Something useful must be made to grow there
 We talk about the dangerous class es" in America. Those are the req dangerous classes who have never caught the motion of life as involving responsibility. They pass their years as mere lockers on in Vienna" They toll not, neither do they spin. They forget the old Scripture truth that the universe keeps as it were debit anc credit account with each dweller in 1t Some day in the case of each one o1 us the books will be opened, the col. umns footed up and the great in vestor will estimate the returns Vt have made or failed to make.
 With boundless sympthy for tht hard world, 1 yet feel less pity for thu man with the hoe than for the un happy mortal who hasn't any. He is who is in danger of finding life disappointing business. He it is wh, is coming nearest to failure.
 THE PARSON.