The Work of Plodders

THE WORK OF PLODDERS. BY S. A. KENNER. In computing the achievements of the world's inventors and promoters, it is to be observed that the plodders, those whose movements are' slow but steady, are not given so much considera- tion as are the brilliant ones, the brisk-gaited, rapid-fire people, those who think quickly and act in the same way. In this respect all ages seem to be alike; those who most expeditiously achieve re- sults receive the most applause, the greatest emulation, the larg- est remuneration. However, the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong. The race between the hare and the tortoise (related in some of the school books) which was won by the latter, contains a moral worthy of occasional remembrance, and it stands as a solemn fact, whether regarded as a monumental one or not, that the achievements of plodders have been more enduring than those of plungers, although what the latter have done is by no means to be treated slightingly or at all underestimated. Watts was a "lazy" boy who lounged around his mother's fire- place in preference to going out and engaging in athletic pursuits or pastimes. During these hours of inaction he caught an idea which has been the means of making a present-day life many times as long as one of his day, by shortening considerably the time con- sumed in passing from point to point. If he had not been "slow" perhaps he never would have loitered around his mother's fire long enough to make note of the power of steam as manifested upon the lid of the tea kettle, a principle which applied has transfigured the world in less than a century.
However, this is but a question of

198 IMPROVEMENl ERA. individuals; if it had not been done by him it would have been ac- complished by some one else, for steam power in mechanism had to come. It came slowly enough, too, even after its possibility was fully demonstrated. Stephenson was ridiculed by the committee of Englishmen appointed to investigate his "steam carriage," and if he had been less tenacious and more sensitive, some other man would undoubtedly have fallen heir to the honors, at last success- fully gathered by him. The same as to Robert Fulton, whose reputation for energy and industry in the place where he lived was by no means excel- lent, but rather the reverse; he was, in fact, set down as a day- dreamer, a visionary, an impractical contriver of profitless schemes; and when the crowd gathered upon the banks of the river, at the time his boat was announced to pull off up stream, it was not at all for the purpose of being convinced or even bestowing praise in the event of possible success, but rather to gratify that strange disposition in humanity of exulting in the downfall of one who is not liked, because unlike his dislikers. The attraction of gravitation was discovered by a man who was believed by some of his neighbors to have been born tired, and never succeeded in getting rested up. His name was Isaac New- ton, and he was in a favorite position — that is, lying supinely upon his back in the shade of an apple tree, when a sample of the fruit descended upon or near him, and set him to thinking, the results of his thoughts being the overturning of many long-cherished errors regarding our abiding place and its position in space, substituting therefor realities and corrected deductions. An active, up-to-date boy in Isaac's place would first have looked around to see if any one had observed his good fortune, then proceeded to eat the fruit, and let science take care of itself. Benjamin Franklin was as dissimilar to the agency with which he frequently and freely associated — lightning — as possible. He was measured, methodical and deliberate, always and under all cir- cumstances. He thought out the means of luring what might properly be termed the fifth element from its abiding place in the clouds, and then put it into practice by means of a kite; that is, he ejected the element of play into his work, and laid the foundation for the grand plan by which, subsequently, the subtile fluid was

TEE WORK OF PLODDERS. 199 harnessed and made one of man's most useful instead of most dan- gerous visitants. This suggests another slow man, Samuel F. B. Morse. It would, perhaps, be claiming too much for him to say he first conceived the idea of electrical transmission, but he was undoubtedly the inven- tor of its practical application as a commercial factor, and lie had an experience in gaining recognition and material assistance for his scheme, so like that of Stephenson as to be considered a coinci- dence; only the former had Americans (American law-makers at that) to deal with, and these are supposed to be somewhat quicker in grasping at speculative projects which give any sort of promise of returns. Congressmen proved to be as slow as any of those herein referred to, but their slowness was of the retarding instead of the progressive kind; yet, the grand consummation was achieved at last. All the' while, the writer is not oblivious to what some readers will be apt to say or think — that the instances mentioned, and the many more that might be named, are somewhat in the nature of solecisms, boomerangs as it were, because each and every one of the achievements recorded as the work of the plodding people has been the means of enabling most of our doings in life, and life itself, to become more energetic, more expeditious.. We don't wait a month for a message from the far east, it comes in a moment; we no longer spend long, wear}'', wearying months filled with dan- ger and dread in making our way from the once frontier to our mountain home, — an equal number of days, pleasantly spent through- out, being all that is required. And so on; antitheses seem to be self-creative, our objections appear as soon as an affirmative prop- osition is presented. It is not so much of results, of consequences, as of their inception, of the means by which they are born and brought into the service of the race of man, that these unpreten- tious lines are designed to treat. Did "fast" people first "catch up" with the idea (for example) that a trans-continental railway- was a feasible enterprise ? Did the swif t-gaited ones build it when the idea was at last adopted? No, to both; Congress was ham- mered at ("pestered," as one member expressed it) for many years by conservative, slow-moving people, who had the idea in their heads, and were, perhaps, too indolent to get it out, before it at

200 IMPROVEMENT ERA last yielded to the inevitable, and passed a Pacific Railroad bill; and the work no sooner started than it stopped, then went ahead again, and the highway slowly made its way across the wastes. Long prior to this, a man whose practical achievements in the field of exploration, pioneering and colonization entitle him to rank among the greatest of the world's people — Brigham Young — by slow and laborious marches not only pointed out, but actually followed, an invisible trail which afterwards became the road bed of the Union Pacific railway. There were no rapid surveys made by him or by any one else, albeit rapidity of travel followed as a result, a result of which we of this day and age, the slow as well as the fast, enjoy the full fruition. The sturdy founders do not rush their work, or it would be badly done in many cases, if done at all; they lay the foundations with care, then complete the structure in the same way, so that the swift-blooded and nimble-fingered who suc- ceed them may dwell in safety and comfort, with so much of rapid- ity as our natures may require and our means permit. "The more haste, the less speed," is an adage the exemplifica- tion of which is found in many of the greater as well as the minor events of life. Somewhat in line with this is the noted saying of Cardinal Richelieu: "We foil gigantic dangers, not by giants, but by dwarfs." Even as the humble things of the earth are some- times used to confound the mighty, have we seen, in our own case, the creeds and other divisions of the people made first to wonder at, then to oppose and harass, by all means at their command, but without avail, the great developments wrought by the unfolding of the Gospel plan to an obscure boy of little education; this fol- lowed by the ceaseless efforts of his associates and successors — all unpaid, but cheerful, tireless and resultful plodders in the vineyard of the Lord — going to show that we reach the golden mean only through patient, laborious, meritorious effort.