CHAPTER VII.

L A B O R.

147 "By the sweat of thy brow, shalt thou eat thy bread."

To remain in absolute idleness, is, to say the least, a great piece of selfishness. Nowhere in life does it seem so glaringly displayed as in cases where a husband is laboring from earliest dawn until latest even, and his wife doing nothing but dressing for dinner parties, making and receiving calls. No matter whether the husband be a professional man, or is extensively engaged in mercantile pursuits, or in any branch of business where the profits are large, sooner or later, if he does not need a helping hand in his wife to save, or retrieve from ruin, he needs sympathy and encouragement, which an idle butterfly wife cannot give. Her living such a life detracts from her character, and, instead of becoming better, truer, and nobler, she is constantly becoming, if not "beautifully less," a sort of less , that lessens one's esteem for her.

148 The mind is either becoming more majestic and beautiful, or it is being dwarfed, as life wears away. Labor of some kind is just as much a necessity to the abiding happiness, as is bread to the existence. The years are not distant, when the truth of this will be realized by every human being.

The following couplet is being acknowledged more and more every year , by our most intelligent people: "Toil of the brain, of the heart, or of the hand, is the only true manhood, the only true nobility." But we would add a word and say, the only true womanhood also, and then we would add a line, and have it read--"And the only sure road to happiness."

No kind of Labor should be despised. It is a great piece of human presumption, to say that any part of God's creation in the great field of Labor, is in any way unworthy of your superior consideration, when Deity takes cognizance of the smallest Labors performed by mortals, and gives credit for even the handing of a cup of cold water.

If you have a regard for the Bible, you must not forget that your every thoughts are sinful, if indulged in, in relation to sinful matters; if you style and feel yourself above another mortal, simply because he is obeying the command, 149 "do what thy hands find to do," you cannot be guiltless.

The shoddyocracy who despise Labor, and teach their children to do so, are more frequently than otherwise, found to be, at length, lamenting over their children's prodigality, if not absolute viciousness. Thus the marriage relation is embittered, when, if the children had all been educated to perform some kind of Labor, and had had the principles of the dignity of the same instilled into their minds, they would have become useful members of society, instead of drones, or butterflies, or criminals.

No individuals can occupy any positions of trust, without Labor, if they discharge their duties properly; for they toil with the pen and brain in signing and considering measures, just as much as the mechanic who makes the table the paper rests upon, or the manufacturer who makes the paper; and the ruler, whoever it may be, performs no higher service in writing yes or no than the writer in speaking of such persons. The one who tills the soil to raise my food, and the one who cooks the same, helps to give me the use of my brains as effectually as though they guided my hands in writing this book.

If both husband and wife labor according to their abilities, they would not only help to 150 give use to each other's brains, but there would be ample time for each to use his or her own brain, for the good of themselves, and society, and they would both be happier than if either were idle.

Not only every son, but every daughter should be given a practical knowledge of some business, whereby they can support themselves. It matters not how much wealth there may be in the family, or how high their position is before the world. Wealth "takes wings and flies away;" positions, sometimes, end on desolate isles, where life drags out very wearily. But whoever they are, whether inhabitants of palaces, or of hovels, wherever all in the family are laboring a part of the day with brain, heart, or hand, they feel that they are living for some purpose, and that there is some happiness in life.

There are more vacant chairs in family circles, made such by sickness and death, from the system having been worn out endeavoring to gain pleasure, than there are honestly laboring to deserve it. The one class spend their days in severe toil, laboring so hard to gain the necessities of existence that the system is constantly overtaxed; the other pass their nights in fashionable follies, and their days 151 in ennui. (Ask the latter class, what has Labor to do with the happiness of the married relation?) Such people are not contented and happy anywhere, and can never sing with the spirit, "Home, sweet home." But the "woman who is kept," feels the sentiment about as much, as the one who "marries for the purpose of being supported in idleness;" and while the one despises the other, the question might be raised as to the vastness of the difference of the sins, in the sight of Heaven. Both classes of women would be married, and both respecting themselves in marriage, were it not for their dependence on the Labor of men.

A public sentiment that endorses some kinds of Labor as being respectable, and others as not; some people as respectable in laboring and others as not; that pays to a man's hand twice or thrice as much as a woman's , for the same Labor, performed as well, and in the same length of time, is a part of the chippings of barbarism, that have not yet been hewn off the pillars of civilization. But the axe is already being forged, with edge so keen, that the work will be thoroughly accomplished, long ere the writer shall count her three score years.

The effects of the Labor question are seen 152 in the family relation on every hand, and when "the good time coming" comes, no one will be obliged to Labor more than three or four hours per day, because all will Labor as a pleasure and a profit to body and mind, if not for pecuniary reasons. The toiling millions and the idle thousands will then be nearer on a par mentally, because the former will have more time for intellectual improvement, when the body is not so weary with toil, that they cannot appreciate anything but physical necessities.

Ye who have the capital, and oppress the laborers, forget that it is the "talent that you must account for" in the future state of existence. If you oppress them here , and prevent them from preparing their minds for an intellectual hereafter , you must suffer there, by keeping the company of those who are so undeveloped, that they are not fitted to be of much service in the great eternity of progression. They are not illiterate, they are not illnatured, simply because they prefer to be, but, because of the unequal distribution of capital, that must always be as it is, until those engaged in the different branches of work are well paid, that they can have time and means for improvement and for rest.

153 At the present time, not family exists, where the marriage relation is not affected injuriously, either by the want of Labor, or by excessive Labor! The great mass of wives are overworked in their homes, "trying to get along without any help, to save expense," when, if the laboring man obtained better wages, the wife could have help constantly. The laboring women are over worked everywhere, as well as the laboring men, but the women are worse off, because of the pittance paid for woman's work.

Thousands of unsuitable marriages are contracted every year, which would never have been, had not the question of Labor been involved. There are but few avocations where women can earn means to purchase homes for themselves, so they do the best they can in getting a permanent shelter by marrying, or "doing worse," and afterwards being diseased and deserted; whereas if the great question of equal pay for work, and good pay at that, and only a few hours per day, were in vogue, they could have a purse of their own, and would not marry until the really congenial one was at hand, and a new dress, or a "love of a bonnet," would not be made a temptation to evil, when such clothes were an absolute necessity, in 154 order to keep a respectable room, or remain in respectable company.

Mrs. Crowe has truthfully said, "Few women marry from affection. It is because it is a suitable person." Parents do not wish their daughters to spend their lives with them, unless it be one who can pay her way with Labor of some kind. Grown girls are almost turned out of doors into marriage, by having their destiny as somebody's wife constantly preached. Fathers are heard to say that, "daughters are only a bill of expense--if you had been sons, I might have been rich."

Women, in some positions of life, are kept out of marriage because their friends will not consent to their marrying what is usually termed a Laboring man--in others, because they are so worn out with Labor, that they are not fit to marry. This is true of the great mass of women in school-rooms, sewing-rooms, and the various factories and binderies.

While many men retire from business, who ever heard of a womsn's retiring from business , because she had accumulated a competency. Women retire from the school-room, or the clerk's desk, from their six or seven hours per day labors, into the Marriage relation, where their family labors and cares give them only as 155 many hours of rest. Or they retire from the fryingpans of other people's kitchens into the fires of their husbands', when, if they had been properly compensated for their labor before Marriage, they would have saved money enough to have paid others, and not be obliged to labor so hard themselves.

As a rule, that labor which costs the most time, and physical strength, is the most poorly paid, and is usually of a nature that is absolutely essential to existence, or, at least, the common comforts of life. This fact is poignantly felt in the marriage relation, by the toiling wife, who feels that nobody with tender care brushes the great drops of perspiration from her brow, with an appreciating look and with words of encouragement, that helps so much to make the thousand trials of domestic wifehood endurable. The terrible sorrows and discouragements, because of not being appreciated, is felt in thousands of homes, both high and low.

The wife who studies from day to day about the kind of food to be prepared, that will be the best, with the least expense ; who performs all the work herself, in kitchen, laundry, nursery and chamber, and then does her sewing by artificial light, sighs over a want of appreciation, 156 and want of time for rest. So does the wife who for long years has directed a number of servants, in her large house with its thousand cares and annoyances that hirelings always make, and independent positions always have as accompaniments. Such a one said in conversation with the writer, "Ten years since, my husband retired from business, and has had no cares since, while I have as many as ever." -- I believe that when a husband retires from his business to spend the rest of his life in reading and recreation, it is time that his wife retires from housekeeping. His whims of diet, and his vanities of style were as great as ever, and he never for a moment thought that his wife's cares were of much importance, but what they were, must be according to the "sphere" that God intended for woman. In such thoughts, he is no better and no worse than the great mass of men, who underrate the work of woman in the family relation.

Sons, as well as daughters, should be brought up to learn the complicated duties of housekeeping. Everything about the kitchen, dining-room, laundry, parlor, making and mending of clothes -- in a word, everything that is considered woman's peculiar duties, should be and must be thoroughly learned by boys, 157 before such Labors and duties will ever be appreciated by men.

One, and I may say the great reason, why the mass of women are so dissatisfied with their domestic duties, is because they are painfully conscious of the inability of men to duly appreciate the thousand cares, thoughts, and anxieties of their position. Too well do women know that the great mass of men feel that if they earn the money, they have performed the nine-tenth part of living, and whatever a woman does is only of minor consideration; and thinking this, men act it in a way that pains and discourages women.

All woman's reasoning of the case goes for naught, because (not that men intend to be unjust to women, not that they intend to make them feel that they are, and must ever be , under a tied-up sort of obligation to them for some and shelter, but it is perfectly impossible for men to realize what is due to woman, unless they have, at some period of life, had a practical knowledge of what a woman's duties are.

There are times and occasions in the life of nearly every man when all of such knowledge is of the greatest of importance to men, as regards comfort if not economy , when the mother 158 or the wife is sick. How much lighter would the broom and smoothing-irons seem if women knew that they had been used by men who had left a touch of appreciation upon them. How much less oppressive would the cook stove seem, if women knew that men's brains had been heated to agony over it; not that "misery loves company," but that every human being loves appreciation, and everybody knows that no one can fully appreciate what they have not known practically.

It is no wonder that men are so unsympathizing and unappreciating, when they are so practically ignorant of what they ought to know. The long tirades about "woman's duties" and "woman's spheres" will be wonderfully shortened when men learn all of the duties of their spheres, the most important of which, is the domestic --(when woman is necessarily taken out of it my maternal sickness) who so blind that they will not see that everything that has before devolved on the wife, now is left entirely to the husband, or should be , to facilitate her recovery.

But we would not take from men credit that is due to them, for there are women who do not appreciate the labors of men, and who do not use money judiciously, and who never feel 159 at all grateful for money that they have neither helped to save, nor encouraged in earning. Such are few, however, and when the toils of the marriage relation are more equally divided and the respectability of all kinds of Labor fully established , the good effects of such a system will be seen in there being few who are unmarried, and much more genuine love in the marriage relation.

But a great work is yet to be accomplished, for "one half of the world knows nothing about the other half" and are not prepared to sympathize with them, for they do not know there are so many groaning beneath Labor chains.

Those who toil excessively become so weary that the rare and beautiful gems of thought, that they try to save in their memory (until they can command time to write them down, ) break and vanish like air bubbles, and no one will believe they were ever thought , because they never saw any evidence of their having had an existence.

Some of their thoughts are as much more beautiful than those who have ample time to express them well, as are the air bubbles from the pipe of a child, more perfect and beautiful, than the real balloon of the man.

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Who will say that the marriage relation would not be made much happier, if the Laborers had time to think and write? For as it affords me happiness in expressing my ideas, and makes me more noble, so it would another human being. Every noble expression adds a title to one's own soul's nobility.

There are branches of Labor where one cannot stop and pen the burning words, that rush out of the brain, and demand paper to rest upon, and a pen to hold them there. But if they labored a fewer number of hours, had better pay for Labor, they would not be so weary that they would forget how to clothe their beautiful ideas, or where they last saw the naked truths that begged for apparel. Many a laborer has listened to such appeals, with a sorrowing heart, knowing that his or her want of time to clothe, would result in the interment of the neglected gems, and they could only attend the funeral, for that takes but little time, and so everybody can attend funerals. The immortal Tupper, in the following words, has beautifully expressed the necessity for clothing the "naked" ideas as soon as they are called for.

"Hast thou a thought upon thy brain?

Catch it ere it fly,

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And it will soon take wing."

We predict that the time will come, when there will be time for all Laborers to heed his advice; for they will not consume so many hours in work, but that if their thoughts do take wing, they can keep sight of them, and overtake them at last without the use of a velocipede. That the Laborers do not desire more time for intellectual pursuits, and are incapable of appreciating and enjoying a higher culture, is a piece of that book of sophistry, from which we have heard so many quotations, that we are led to believe that many people express themselves not only ignorantly, but thoughtlessly.

The great mass of the manual Laborers of our country, can comprehend whatever profound reasoning may be brought before them. And who will pretend that the mind that can understand is not as great, naturally , as the one that can create? The only difference is in the power of surroundings that have developed the one into expressing what the other would have been able to do, if as well informed.

Those who would keep a certain class in ignorance, for the purpose of being almost revered 162 for their own lore and positions, forget that the higher the culture, the greater the appreciation, and as a natural consequence, the better the people and the better the marriage relation generally. That there always will be some who are grovelling, and half idiotic, or for many hundreds of years, no one will doubt; but such, in time, will be looked upon with that same kind of pity, that their deplorable conditions shall elicit from the truly noble of the earth.

Would not the marriage relation be bettered if such were kept in asylums, and not allowed to marry and entail their wretched condition on offsprings, whose chances of becoming respectable and intelligent citizens were still less than their parents?

If half grown children in filthy streets, who are growing up in idleness, were taken to asylums where they could be taught trades, and educated for the ordinary business of life, they would not live in such filth afterwards, and the habits of neatness that would be acquired would be carried into homes of their own. Both sexes should be treated in this way, and parents not allowed to visit them, unless they were sober and cleanly in their appearance.

Our free schools do not accomplish all that 163 was hoped for the lowest classes, and there is an absolute necessity for other educational advantages which cannot be given them in a systematic manner, unless they are under the control of those who make a business of teaching practical as well as theoretical ideas. The cost of such institutions to the State, would not be as great as the policemen's salaries to watch their filthy dens, and the costs of Jails and Courts.

In time the marriage relation of such would be made much better; for, if the parents would not live soberly and respectably, their children would be away from such influences, and would never settle down into their parents' degrading style of existing, when, by proper Labor, they could live comfortable, and well.

Better classes suffer in consequence of the wrongs of the Labor question. Many would have been married who are now living in a most wretched condition, having no homes, and never can have, because the pay for their labor is so small. They cannot accumulate a sufficient amount before marriage to warrant them in assuming the responsibilities of the relation, which, in the first place, calls for a house, or a high price for board. It has been said, and too truthfully, that the first years of marriage 164 life are either commenced in an extravagant way, so that in a few years they are obliged to strain every nerve, simply to live respectable and keep up an appearance, or are obliged to go to some new country, and be prisoners half of a life-time, and thus their minds are dwarfed by hard Labor, and want to time to improve the mental condition.

No individuals can be entirely absorbed in excessive physical toil, without detracting from the mental powers. You can see, as you go to a country church, who are overworked through the week, by the head's dropping, and the arms of Morpheus at once encircling the listener. However interesting the speech, it is impossible for the tired body to allow the mind to comprehend all that is said, and the mind is so tired with the body, that it cannot think clearly on any subject whatever. Look at the effect on the children of such overworked parents! It must be evident that the mind of such cannot be as thoroughly developed as though they had time for recreation and mental improvement. There is much truth in the assertion, "where no bread is brought in at the door, love goes out of the window," and it needs but little observation to see that love can not feed on air, and that minds of parents can 165 not feed on air either, and manufacture trains to give to posterity. That there are a great many unhappy hours caused by the poverty in many poor families is too true. The husband is too weary to attend lectures, and besides he cannot afford to spend a dollar not strictly necessary, and thus a great and important source of, not only recreation, but of improvement is lost.

Many a soul is hemmed and packed and compressed into a narrow life, with pure and extensive aspirations. Many a great soul yields quietly to conditions that are, wearing out the body in but partially requited toil, that irritates the nervous system to such an extent, that the effects on the marriage relation are far from being happifying.

I am ashamed of so much of our American boasting, when I look facts in the face, and hear the unsung agonies of thousands of our people, that toil all their lives, and die without owning a little home. They nestle into the bosom of our mother Earth, feeling that somebody has deprived them of a cot, or a foot of land.

Away in the distant future, the people of the day will charge the great land-owners, and stock-owners, and great everybodies, with selfishness 166 unparalleled, when they read that many fathers never saw any of their children by day-light, except on Sunday, as they were all day at work in factories, mines and railroads, and that many husbands and fathers never saw their wives and children in the beautiful light of day, because so weary on Sundays, after the long week's Labors, that they could not keep their own eyes open to look at them!

It is strange, when all the comforts and luxuries enjoyable are produced by Laboring people, that the wealthy do not make greater efforts to show appreciation of the Laborers! It is only when there is a colliery explosion, that the dangers which attend the digging of coal to make us comfortable in cold weather, seem to be realized.It is only when a switch tender fails in his duty, and a collision of railroad coaches results, that we realize (as the mangles masses of humanity are before us) how dependent we are upon the Labor of the men who graded the road, the men to made the track, the men to laid the rails, the men to made the comfortable coaches, with cushioned seats, looking-glasses, stoves with glowing fires, and all the comforts of travel.

Not one luxurious couch, not one magnificent mirror, not one splendid carpet, not one marble-top table, but that, for style and beauty, we own not only to the hands , but to the conceptions of beauty, and utility of the poor Laborer. Not one exquisitely wrought silver dish upon your mahogany dining-table, or even the brilliant flowers in your vases, but that cost the hard, and poorly paid toil of workers that are unnoticed by you. Even the linen in its snowy whiteness that you sleep upon, and wear in displaying your diamonds, are brought to you by woman's blistered hands, that you pay so poorly for the toil that causes the suffering! It is not only her hands, but her soul's anxiety to have the clothes suit, that helps to wear her life, and use up her strength, and yet no one seems to think that there is anything but physical toil with the laundry woman.

The happiness of the marriage relation everywhere would be enhanced, if all were paid better for their Labor, worked a fewer number of hours in a day, and were duly appreciated in the performance of the same, and were made to feel, that, as it was noble for Deity to Labor and make the Heavens and the Earth, and all that in them is, "it is noble for His creatures, one and all, to do what their hands find to do."