Scotland/Scots > Licht frae the smiddy o' Saunders Dinwuddie

44 A CHRISTIAN WORKSHOP.
Force mak’s slaves or hypocrites ; that’s a’. I
ne’er "try to force ony man’s conscience ; I can do
this, and I do it. I can keep oot o’ my shop the
haill tribe o’ ill-doers, wha hae nae conscience
either to hand or bind them. I can keep them
oot. The ' riddlin’s o’ creation’ shall ne’er enter
my smiddy as workmen. They may be carted
awa’, and toomed oot at the back-door o’ the
warld for me.- They ha’e nae honest business
here, sae far as I can see and judge.’’
“But the ‘waff and the wicked,’as you call
them, Saunders, must have work, and food, and
raiment as well as others.”
“Weel-a-weel, Sir; that’s their look-oot, no
mine. Let them gang their wa’s to waff and
wicked maisters, then; it will be like maister,
like man.”
“ Masters in general, Saunders, care little or
nothing about the moral character of their
workers provided they get plenty of good work
out of them.’’
“ The mair shame on sic maisters, Sir, for guid
maisters micht mak’ better men, and guid men
micht mak’ better maisters too. But when we
see maisters weavin’ their ain braw braid claith,
as it were, oot o’ the rags o’ poverty—when we
see their board groanin’ wi’ dainties, and their
servants, like dogs, eatin’ the crums that fa’ frae
their tables—when we see them biggin’ palaces,
and the builders lodgin’ in sows’ cruives—when
we see them growin’ rich by screwin’ bodies and
fardin’s aff starvation wages—when we see them
scrapin’ the puir banes o’ helpless misery, we may
weel say—waesucks ! for the speech o’ the first