204 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



to add to their learning. So with young physicians — it is a fearful 

 struggle for them to get a standing in any large city. It is a wonder 

 how many of them manage to live at all. It must be that many 

 spend a small fortune in establishing a practice from which they 

 obtain a meager subsistence by the most arduous labor, after having 

 devoted years to qualify themselves for the profession. And as for 

 clergymen, it is certainly no better, viewed from a financial stand- 

 point. Their salaries are generally too slender for a lawyer's clerk to 

 live upon ; and even such pittance is most grudgingly paid. How 

 much more satisfactory it is to draw a salary from the world's great 

 paymaster — our nation's soil! Everything the farmer produces is so 

 much added to the wealth of the community. The producer has the 

 proud satisfaction of knowing that he has not wronged any man out 

 of a farthing, nor wrung anything unwillingly from a fellow-being. 

 He can truly " sit down under his own vine and fig tree, with none 

 to molest him or make him afraid." Neither is there any better 

 field among the merchants or the mechanics in the city. The occu- 

 pation of the merchant is fraught with great anxiety and risk, while 

 mechanics find only by close application and great diligence that they 

 are able to support their families. But next to that of being a farmer, 

 I would say to every young man, learn a trade; you have then a 

 capital that can never be taken from you ; and should adversity come, 

 you can at any time commence again with that which the foreclosure 

 of the mortgage upon the old homestead could not compel you to 

 part with. I realize the fact that many young men, from their very 

 nature, dislike farm life, and have a natural taste for some more excit- 

 ing occupation. He may, by learning a trade, do as well or better 

 in the city. But the great objection to this tendency to drift into the 

 cities, is that the proportion of population in the cities is already too 

 great. Fully two thirds of the people of this State dwell in the cities. 

 The conditions ought to be reversed; and, in my opinion, this is one 

 great cause of the complaint of hard times that was so loudly made 

 not many months ago. If there were more people scattered over the 

 State, producing instead of standing idle in the cities consuming, 

 there would be no cause for complaint. How different, too, is home 

 in the country, with its ample fields, its pleasant groves and shady 

 walks, its wholesome food and pure air, from the crowded and 

 unwholesome shelter in the city. 



Compare the average farmer's cottage with the average city tenant 

 house. In the former there is always enough to eat, enough to wear, 

 plenty of glorious sunshine and health-giving atmosphere. Near it 

 can be found, or always produced by a small effort, a few cheerful 

 trees with their shade; and there singing birds will come, making- 

 merry music for weary hearts. Often there are sparkling brooks 

 filjed with fish; woods with wild game; cows that give rich milk, 

 which supplies the table with fresh butter ; horses that place it within 

 the reach of all for a pleasant ride; fields of waving grain, or well 

 filled bins or bags, while the poultry of a dozen different breeds sing 

 their songs of contentment. The children rove over the hills with 

 the freedom of the air, happy, strong in body and mind and con- 

 science, growing up to usefulness and honor. On the other hand, the 

 average mechanic and laboring man in the city comes home at even- 

 ing tired and hungry, to a small, dingy house, of three or four rooms, 

 occupying a space of eighteen by a hundred feet or less; the paint has 

 been washed off by the rains; the fence in front, if there be any at 



