418 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



sleeping in the same shirt in which he has performed his day's 

 work. Now this is all wrong. The laborer should have his 

 working dress, and clean dry dress to put on, when his work is 

 done. He should bathe himself thoroughly, not merely his face 

 and hands, but his whole person, from head to foot, and put on 

 his clean dress before he takes his evening meal. The laborer 

 who has never done this, knows not how much luxury he may 

 enjoy, even under the severest labor. This bathing and 

 change of dress almost removes the fatigue which he before 

 felt, and allows him time for intellectual improvement, or 

 pleasant social intercourse, which he must otherwise spend in 

 sleep. This bathing, this cleansing, is no humbug with the 

 man, any more than it is with the horse. 7^he perspiration 

 being removed, the pores of the skin are uncloyed, and the 

 skin itself can perform its appropriate functions. Health, com- 

 fort, happiness are the result. 



There are other reasons too why the hard working men 

 should bathe themselves and change their dress, after their work 

 for the day is done. Perspiration is one of the modes provided 

 by nature for carrying off from the body much of the foul mat- 

 ter that accumulates in it. Perspiration in any considerable 

 quantity, is offensive to the smell. Hence every consideration 

 of delicacy and refinement, as well as that of health and com- 

 fort, calls upon the laborer to adopt the plan proposed. 



Let it not be thought that the time thus spent each day, in 

 bathing the body and changing the dress, is time lost to the 

 hours of rest. It is exactly the reverse. It is rest itself. It 

 removes from the body that which clogs the pores and obstructs 

 its free, healthful, and pleasurable action. It removes, in a 

 very great degree, the heaviest and most disagreeable burden, 

 which labor lays upon us. The necessary soil of labor on the 

 hands, arms, face, during the actual performance of labor, 

 " does not defile the man." It has nothing degrading or low 

 in it. But let it remain there, after the labor is performed, and 

 it is out of place. Then " it defileth the man." Then it be- 

 comes a cause of physical, intellectual and moral degradation. 



