We are all of us familiar with the fact that physical work is more or
less exhausting in different climates, and as I am dealing, or about to
deal, with the work of business men, which involves a certain share of
corporal exertion, as well as with that of mere scholars, I must ask
leave to digress, in order to show that in this part of the country at
least the work of the body probably occasions more strain than in
Europe, and is followed by greater sense of fatigue.
The question is certainly a large one, and should include a
consideration of matters connected with food and stimulants, on which I
can but touch. I have carefully questioned a number of master-mechanics
who employ both foreigners and native Americans, and I am assured that
the British workman finds labor more trying here than at home; while
perhaps the eight-hour movement may be looked upon as an instinctive
expression of the main fact as regards our working class in general.
A distinguished English scholar informs me that since he has resided
among us the same complaints, as to the depressing effects of physical
labor in America, have come to him from skilled English mechanics. What
share change of diet and the like may have in the matter I have not
space to discuss.[1]
[Footnote 1: The new emigrant suffers in a high degree from the same
evils as to cookery which affect only less severely the mass of our
people, and this, no doubt, helps to enfeeble him.
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