Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/387

Rh temporal advantage that society has ever found. The exercise of a vigorous and persistent continuity is eminently repulsive to many unfortunate persons, who seem incompetent to consider, and even less to realize, that what often appears as a sudden, triumph of genius is only the result of a diligent and prolonged uniformity of application, pursued in chambers where the eye of popular observation seldom penetrates. The idea that working on and on, doing the same things over and over again, is the experimental lot of thousands that the world calls successful, and that permanently gratifying accomplishments can be obtained only by following in the same path of protracted samenesses, hardly enters the consciousness of multitudes who can only wonder that their success is small, and that their lines fall in unpleasant places.

A certain rich man in this town was sometimes solicited by needy individuals in search of work. The urgency of application indulged by supplient industrial callers was doubtless at times of such a character as to awaken the most dormant element of sympathy. The part of wisdom in such instances often implies a proper test of a man's disposition to help himself. This part was once illustrated by our late wealthy townsman in an emphatic manner. Receiving an application for work, he agreed to employ at the expense of one dollar a day. Taking the laborer into an out-building, he pointed to an accumulation of earthy debris and required that it be shoveled out through a window in tine side of the edifice. The laborer consumed a whole day in the accomplishment of this task, and received the prompt payment of a dollar for the service.

"Do you want to work to-morrow?" asked the employer.

"I should like to," answered the employee.

"Very well; come to-morrow and work, and I will pay you another dollar."

"What do you wish me to do?"

"It matters not; only understand that I will provide you with work."

Next morning the employee appeared for work, and the employer pointed to the pile of debris removed from the building on the previous day, and gave his directions.

"I want you to shovel that pile all back into the building," said he.

The laborer patiently resumed work, and at the end of the day had removed the debris to its former inside position, and received his dollar in regular payment.

"Do you want to work to-morrow?" again inquired the master of hiring.

"I should like to," replied the servant of wages.

"Very well: come again and work to-morrow, and I will pay you another dollar."

The next morning saw the workman promptly on hand again, and his employer, pointing to the afore-mentioned accumulation said:

"I want you to go to work and shovel that all out-doors again."

The same alternations of labor were required and performed several times, and the employee duly received his daily dollar in payment. In time, however, the sense of irksomeness overcame the dispostion to industry. The workman refused to accept the task and received, with his discharge, a gratuitous expression reflecting uncomplimentarily upon the principle of laziness. It was a hard situation, but no worse than that of thousands of tradesmen and clerks who are all their lives reenacting the same uses.

In contemplating the earliest history of a New England township, one cannot fail to notice the frequency with which certain personages appear in places of public trust. In fact, in the times under retrospection, there were few men out of the whole number in a local community who either considered themselves proper candidates for office or were considered such by their contemporaries. The consequence of prevailing social conditions made the earlier official status generally uniform throughout New England. In time,