“Only a Shoemaker”

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 449, 26 February 1890, Page 3

“Only a Shoemaker”

It is scarcely necessary for us to inform anyone who has long been a reader of The Farmer that we do nob agree with our pre- - Bent Premier in many of his political views, and that we should, in the interests of the colony, rejoice to see men in power who would completely change the policy followed by the present Government. At the same time we quote with hearty approval the extract printed below from an article in the total abstinence organ, the Leader , in which the writer animadverts upon the snobbish utterance of some fool who, at a public meeting to condemn the property tax, contemptuously remarked with reference to Sir Harry Atkinson, that he was “only a shoemaker.” The article concludes as follows : According to the dictum of the fanatic who denounced Sir Harry as “ only a shoemaker,” Jacob Bohm, the great German mystic, had no right to produce such famous works which Sir Isaac • Newton delighted to study, because he was “ only a shoemaker Samuel Drew ought never to have had the presumption to write the “Immortality of the Soul,” because he was “only a shoemaker;” George Fox, the founder of the English Quakers’ should apologise for his Christian efforts because he was brought up “ only a shoemaker.” And who was that man who set himself up to denounce a leader of the people who had climbed to the highest position . in the colony in the gift of the people because “he was only a shoemaker” ? Who is anybody in this place that he should scorn any man who earns his bread with the sweat of his brow ? Look around and take stock of the elite ? Who’are they? who were their fathers and their mothers ? All honour to them for their industrj, integrity, and frugality, by which they rose by degrees one niche higher, until they placed their children on that plane whence some of them now look down on “only a shoemaker.” Away with those who prefer the thin veneer of title and display to the honour due to honest toil. ‘ A prince can make a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a’that, * ! But an honest main’s aboon his might Guid faith, he maunna fa’ that

Every free man should resent a ttempts to chain anyone down to his humble origin, if lie can honourably rise above it with advantage to himself and Iris fellow men ; and it is significant that the very Saviour .of mankind did not disdain to work as a carpenter. "He chose poor fishermen to bo His

ministers, and since their day many of the world’s best benefactors have been hornyhanded sons of toil, or descendants of those who were. Cooper Fenteman catalogued them, and the following are some he instanced : Abbott, George (Archbishop of Canterbury), was the son of a weaver and clothworker. Bewick, Thomas (famous wood-engraver), a coal miner. Bunyan, John (author of the “ Pilgrim’s Progress ”), was a tinker. Demosthenes (the great orator), the son of a blacksmith. Faraday, Michael (celebrated chemist and philosopher), was a bookbinder, and the son of a poor blacksmith. Franklin, Dr. Benj. (philosopher and statesman), a journeyman printer. Gifford, Win. (tho able editor of the Quarterly Review), a shoemaker in his youth. Hall, Robert (the great preacher and author), was a tailor. Hawkins, Sir John (author of the “ History of Music ’), was a carpenter. Haydn, Joseph (the great musical composer), the son of a wheelwright. Hunter, Dr. John (one of the first anatomists in the world), was bred a carpenter. Jay, Rev. Win. (the popular minister of Bath), was a stonemason. Livingstone, Dr. (celebrated African traveller), worked at a print works. Miller, Hugh (author of “Footprints of the Creator,’’ etc.), was originally a quarryman and mason. Peel, Sir Robert, was grandson of a journeyman cotton spinner. Ray, John (the naturalist), was the son of a blacksmith. Shakspere, William"- (the prince of English dramatic poets), was the son of a butcher. Stephenson, George (the great engineer and railway contractor), was a mender of watches, Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, was the son of a barber. Tenlerden, Lord (one of the most distinguished of English Lord Chief Justices), a barber. Virgil (the great Latin poet), son of a baker. Watt, James (the distinguished improver of the steam-engine), the son of a trades man. Wordsworth, William (poot - laureate), was a butcher’s boy. H. M. Stanley was a workhouse boy. So, let us have no more humbug about “he was only this, that, or the other,” but rather let us emulate the good and great, and be excited by their noble examples to noble deeds, for— Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime, And departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time. Footprints that perhaps another, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.”