The Mechanic's Holiday

"A good mechanic is master oí his tools." The wisdom of our ancestors is in the oíd maxim; Imr, alasl much of tha wisdom of our ancestors was buried with their boncs. Now-a-days the tooi ia rapidly becoming master of the mechanic. Modern iuvention is continually making the tools more important, and the mechanic leas important. The workman is becoming, everywhere and in all the trades, more and more a mere attendant npon special machine tools that do tha work- particularly the nice work- automatically and with machine regularity and precisión, while the man merely supplies and handles the material. The race of mechanics that our fathers knew, who could do anyihing and everything in their respective trades by deft hand work, are almost gone. In fact some eutire trades are gone, and more are on the vurge of going. The majority of the boys of to-day never saw a stage dr. ver, forrnerly TIIH PRIDE Oí' THE IiO.'tD. The railroads have driven him out of existence And the boys will do well to take a good look at the expert street car driver Iö twenty years from now - probably in len years- there will not one be left, unles he still lingers in some back village of the effete despotisms of Europe where it takea two generations for a new idea to sprout. Electricity will have taken the place of horses. The old fashioned hatter, who used to measure your grandfather's head with a tape, and make a hat complete from beaver f ur, and later from silk, is now invisible as a ghost. Hats are made by macbinery, in factories, and purchased at ast re warranted to fit, in accurate sizes. The old style shoeinaker, who maile foot wear complete from begimiing to end, from a lady's slipper to a heavy boot, is neai-ly gone. You can find hlm barcly lingering here and there in somesmiill shop on a back street. The factory has taken his place. The old-style blacksmitb, eelïbrated by the past, who could H'AWniIVi; IN IKOX OR STEEL, is s tradition now. In his stead you shall find a putt ei toLüriher of parts made in a factory. Hu purs the ready-made irons on your carriage- he does not iron it. He puts shoes on your norse- he does not innke them. Tailors are oearly out of fashion. You shall hnnt long to flnd one such as every village could ouce boast- a man who measured, cut, and gewed all kinds of gar" ments from n shirt to a dress coat. Now there are cultera, and some sewers; but the latter aro gnrwing few. A little longer and the factory will have beaten them all from the field. TUK OLD FASHIOHED CABPBjmSB, who could buüd an entire liouse with his chest of toüls, making the winding staira with neevels, posta, and carved rails, and who cut the eornices, beadini?, moulding and panel work and made the doors, sash and bliuds by hand- where is he? Gone forever. Yet a little while, and all houses will be altogether made at the factory, and only be put together in sites, as they already are mostly. Still there are handicrafts that seem perpetual, But dou't be too gure, "Machinery cannot touch our trades," say the bricklayer, the type-setter, the painter, the stone-cntter. They are mistaken. Already a larse part of stone cutting is done by machinery. Already machines have been devised to construct brick walls. Already type setting machines have ap peared. Already painting machines have been invented. lie sure that invention will not cease until all these Chinga have been accomplished and are common. The old cooper's trade is dying, too. Immense factories now turn out machinemade barrels by the hundred thousand, cheaper and better than hand work can accomplisli. The wagon and carriage builder has also given place to the factory. And so through all crafts- the teudency is the same. In the far.tnrv THE TOOL DOMINATES THE WOKKMAN. He obeys the machine, instead of the tooi obeying him. He becomes part of the machinery. He niakes just so many motions per ïninute, governed by the incessant speed of the machine upon whose movement lie attends. The resnlts are cheaper prodacts, in the main better products, and immensely greater production. Thero ia tesa individual skill, but a higher average grade of work. Tbere is more leisure and loss hours of labor per day íor the workingman. ïhere is less crudeness and botter linish. The world is more comfonaMe at less cost. In BOme things hardahip, on the whole invention bas proved great Messing to all classes of people. If the farmer has forgotlen the skill of hls fut hors, and no longer reaps, mows, aowa or plants in the old, slow, hand wuy, see how mach better off he is, and how much better he lives, f reed f rom the necessity of toiling fourteen hours per day. The mechanic no longer worka from early lunrise to late sunset. And wages are much higher than they tued to be in ihose old days. llowever poverty may pineh, or skill be idle in occasional places, :or all who are able to live there is conAnually Increasing comfort at continually lecreasiiig cost. The workmau of to-day s better dressed, better housed and better !ed, and enjoya more of the graces of life, .han the employer of our fatbers' times. There is do better recreation or leason lor mechanica and workinmen than to nspoct and study the inventiuns, and machines, and tools whose shilling bodies'are THE SCEPTERS OF EMPIKE OTer tlie forces of nature, and whose cunning operations make modern civilizaion possible. In one sense it is studying lis masters; in another it may be learnng to become a master. í'or man can make no tooi that is master of man- no machine that is equal to the mind that conceived or the intelligence that must use it. Skill is still king of labor, though t üuds nevv occupations. Kvery mechanic and W3rkingmim should attend carefully apon such a great exhibition of tools, machines and implemento, as will be shown at the Detroit International Fair and Exosition Aug. 26 toSept. öinclusive, where ie can see and study uot only the newest ools and inventions for usu in his own irade, but in all other trades also and father new ideas that may be of value to ïim, tOKether with the ileiisure that ivery true mechanic feels in inspectiug ;ools and machinery of the latest and best tyles and iatterns, and the choicest proucts ui the varióos handicrafts. (actoriea, lomes and workshops. For sueh a fair is n ajintlKiisis of the industrial world. loreover it. is a season of Instructiva eliuhis, in mubic, games, spectacles, line nimals, uri, and everything thnt can muse and plèase in the best seuse a mehanics' boliday and .show of productS on amagniücent scale.