To be sure, it is a temple which these men are building, but the
bricklayers, hod-carriers, etc., worked in the same way when they were
putting up a private house.
[Illustration]
These poor men whom you see toiling here were probably not born
slaves, and it is very likely that many of them are equal in birth and
education to those who own them.
A great proportion of them are captives taken in war, and condemned
for the rest of their lives to labor for their victorious enemies
That will be a vast temple which they are building. Look at the
foundations--what enormously thick walls! It is probable that several
generations of slaves will labor upon that temple before it is
finished.
They do not work exactly as we do in the present day. The hod-carrier,
who is bringing bricks from the background, has a very good way of
carrying them; but those who are bearing a pile of bricks between them
seem to make a very awkward business of it. And the man who is
carrying mortar on his shoulder, as he ascends the ladder, might very
profitably take a lesson from some of our Irish hod-carriers. An
earthen pot with a round bottom is certainly a poor thing in which to
carry mortar up a ladder.
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