Part 6 (1/2)
”Get work! Get work! Be sure That it is better than anything you work to get”
Country children can gather the eggs, cut feed for the animals, often have a pet lamb, chickens, heifers or colts of their own to care for
There is little difficulty in finding ”chores” for theirl are not so fortunately situated
All that can be done for them is to devise errands, and to place upon them as much responsibility for small duties about the house, as you think they can bear They should spend asin their own yard or, under close watch, in the street,--the playground of ht of should be used to make them despise the idea of idleness, and to love work
A distinguished professor in one of our great universities taught his classes that as one of the cardinal evils, and that a pri with as little work as possible
A ht her son up to believe that as noble and honorable, and that it ranked with the four gospels as a iven that professor He overturned in the lory of work, which she had so painstakingly erected there, and it has never been fully re-established No such iven a position upon a college faculty
When one reads of the childhood of the vast uished ht up in comfort, with plenty to eat and to wear, should ever attain to high positions Most of our great h seas of adversity, in order to get an education and a foothold in the world of literature or art or politics or finance We recognize that it was the self-reliance and the capacity for hard work thus developed, which brought them success We know that it is a truism that poverty is the mother of muscle and of invention Many wealthy parents have tried to supply this greatthein at the bottom” of some business This has sometimes, but not often, resulted well; for, after all, artificial poverty is only a blind, and the child has ever the underlying consciousness that it is, and that there is no real need that he should much exert himself
A lady who conducted a subscription class of society women in their own beautiful parlors, testified that their mental inertia was lamentable, and that the only two in her class of fifty, who really seeht, o They had to ht in order to keep themselves afloat
In Professor Drummond's remarkable book, ”Natural Law in the Spiritual World,” there is a striking illustration of the deteriorating effect of disuse upon organs, in the highly organized crab, which, when it finds a rich feeding-ground, attaches itself to some convenient rock, loses one by one its feelers and tentacles and soon becomes a simple sac, fit only to suck up nourishment
Many of the absurd opinions and nearly all of the sins of the so-called ”society” people can be laid to idleness The mind, seldom used to its capacity, becomes dull and unable to reason, and theis worse for our country than the increase of our idle classes Its salvation is the slogan that every
Our ”leisure wo actively into our great philanthropic and civic organizations
The war has given then for our nation that so e Meredith calls, ”that baggage which has so hindered theto realize her responsibility as a citizen of a great de us is so rare that he is an alible quantity, for which we et the child of America started well in the ways of industry, thepleasure of achieve more of it
”The phrase, 'economy of effort,' so dear to Froebel's followers, had little nes Repplier ”He asserts that effort is oxygen to the lungs of youth, and that a noble, generous rivalry is the spur of action and the i force of civilization”
It is certainly the ”cue” of every patriot who loves his country
The joy of work is well described by Cleveland Moffett in the article which has been reeable work reeable All who have tried it, no ree that enforced idleness ranks a the most cruel of tortures Men easily die of it, as doctors knoho every day order broken-down neurasthenics in their middle fifties, back into the business or professional harness they have foolishly retired froed or prefer to support the hopefully President Woolley of Mount Holyoke tells of seven of her recent graduates who took part lately in a sy work, but no one of as teaching, though that has hitherto been the irl
One of these young women was a physician; the others were respectively: a lawyer; an interior decorator; an editor of the children's departent in New York State; a ton; and the Secretary of the American Nurses' association
Such incidents irls will soon find as wide a scope as that enjoyed by our boys
And it cannot be too strongly eular daily work in early life is invaluable in establishi+ng habits of industry
A coood habits,” or ”He has bad habits” We do not hear it so often nowadays, but the words are full ofAs abut realize,” says Mr Moffett, ”how soon they will becoive more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state”
It is then that we mothers must mold them into the workers that ant them to be, and we must use the patriotic motive to quicken their love of industry In certain states thisidle men to work
Robert Gair is the founder of what is now the greatest ”paper-products”
business in this country, and probably in the world It is located in the Borough of Brooklyn, New York City There Mr Gair, on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday, made an address to his ele_, was as follows:
”No permanent achievement, whatever its form may be, appears to be possible without stress of labor Nothing has come to me without persistent effort of the head and of the hand Hard labor hat ant, if the laws of nature are obeyed Self-coddling and the fear of living strenuously, enfeeble character and result in half-successes
Hard labor has no penalties It is the loss of hardihood through careless living that brings penalties Do the one thing before you with your whole heart and soul Do not worry about what has gone by, nor what lies ahead, but rivet your ence and late hours produce leaden hands and a listless brain, robbing your work of 'punch'”