4907] Nature Study No. 40 aog 



Professional men and men in sedentary occupations are the 

 principal buyers, and the result must be that there shall be a draw- 

 ing- together ot the various classes and the formation of a bond of 

 sympathy between them which cannot fail to benefit both 



The handicraftsman shall reap a value in respect ar.i consign- 

 ation and progress made in the direction of that goal toward which 

 Tolstoi looks so earnestly. However little I may regard Tolstoi 

 the mystic, 1 have a large respect tor Tolstoi the humanitarian. 



It has been said that the Mechanical Hobby trains the fact; 

 of observation and stimulates the desire for kc: rle* ge, and I am 

 convinced that the reason for the poor work turned out by 

 average artizan is not so much low wages and the desire for cheap 

 goods on the part of the public as it is to carele--r.r the " 

 of the workman. 



The workman who studies carefully the requirements and 

 observes closely the best examples c: : done in his own line 



cannot fail to improve as a workman and will succeed proportion- 

 ately. 



The workman who can and does turn out the best that is in 

 him can always find those who are willing and able to pay for his 

 product 



The Mechanical Hobby is a quiet but powerful spirit working 

 out the salvation of character and opposed strong :o the prevail- 

 ing commercialism which is madly given to measuring all things 

 e en men, by the sordid standard of dollars and cents. 



In hundreds of (actor es, the js .nds of workmen turn c. 

 of thousands oi chairs daily. 



Down in his cellar or up in his garret or out in his - 



the Amateur Mechanic will make an oak chair in six men: 

 working at odd moment*, putting his time, his labour, his th 

 his individual self into that 



He knows each piece of wood, each joint, each screw es 

 each scratch that refused sc stubbornly to be rubbed out. 



What are the tens of thousands of fat chairs along- 



side of this ore .- 



It may be inferior, it may be who execrable it matters r. 

 The valuable element lies in tne spirit in which the work was dc 



