30 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



glass windows ? Come on. Answer. Or your book and news- 

 paper? Aye, and the paper you write on ? Aye, wlio made tlie 

 mill which grinds your corn ? or the wonder of the world, steam 

 machinery, ships, &c ? 



Come on. Let me take from you all that has been supplied by 

 the mechanics of the world, and you will instantly find yourself 

 stripped stark naked, with neither house, nor bed, nor bread, — 

 naked as an earth-worm. 



Glory, then, to the mechanic arts, granted by the Almighty to man, 

 whom He, of his infinite goodness created ^'after his own image," 

 and endowed with the mighty power given to no other being 

 — that of creating myriads of things which God himself was pleased 

 to leave uncreated^ — a power which all thinking men view with 

 solemnity, and many, less strong-minded, look at with supersti- 

 tious dread. Even now, tens of thousands of men deem Frank- 

 lin almost, if not quite, impious, for daring to attempt to ward off 

 a thunderbolt from heaven ; — \\\e same men, who build tight 

 houses to ward off rains and tempests, cold, and the heat of the 

 heavens. 



You cannot fail to admire the works of our fellow-citizens dis- 

 played in this palace of the people. I will not attempt (for it 

 would be vain in me) to describe to you all that is here. But 

 among other-mighty matters, I see some little things whose power 

 of wholesome revolution among the best half of us ( the ladies,) 

 strikes me as wonderful. I mean the sewing-machines. From 

 creation to this day have all the women of the globe been con- 

 demned to the painful, stooping, injurious, minute stitching, of all 

 the clothing of the human race, and that much of it, very imper- 

 fectly. How noble, then, is this little magical implement, restoring 

 woman to her proper upright posture, and a power to do with ease 

 the work formerly requiring a large number of hands, and that, too, 

 with inimitable accuracy. Speaking, as I now do, for the mana- 

 gers of this interesting annual of the republic, I must ask you to 

 consider well this great collection of the works of American citi- 

 zens, of one year only, — the new, the altered, the amended — all, 

 all for some useful purpose. 



