THE SOCIAL RANK OF FARMERS. 189 



that we have in society, caste and rank. If there are any -who 

 believe that "we have not, they are those who have never felt the 

 elbows of their neighbors, like battering rams, plying away at their 

 floating ribs. If you believe we have not, go with me and ask the poor boy 

 whose piitched pants and stone bruised feet liave been the butt of his schoolmate's 

 jeers. Ask those girls whose hands have become browned by the dishwater and 

 wasliing, and whose keen sensibilities have so often been cut with the slights 

 and taunts of their dandy, whitehanded neighbors. Go and ask the poor man, 

 as he comes from our church door, in what or whose pew he found a sitting. 

 In spite of the declaration that " we hold all men to be born free and equal," 

 a large silver spoon in the mouth of a baby will help to tip the beam of our 

 American scales. 



Social rank with ns is of two kinds, that which is real and that which is 

 assumed. The real is that which is built upon inherent worth. It is composed 

 of morality, intelligence, perseverance, and other qualities that go to make up 

 a man. It matters not whether he was born of royal blood, or whether his 

 father came from the bogs of Ireland in the hold of a ship, and has carried 

 the mortar hod all his days. Real worth is not intruding. It does not go 

 about with a brass band, nor advertise itself like an open bottle of camphor. 

 It is rather the sunshine that we see streaming out of the good and noble deeds 

 of men and women. It is the influence of good mothers, wiiose golden precepts 

 and advice and example are the pictures that hang npon the walls of memory. 

 It is the influence for good that has come from the hovel, as well as from the 

 palace. 



An assumed social rank is that which glitters most and has the least sub- 

 stance. You may see it in a silk umbrella, being walked all around by a 

 moustache and a pair of skin-tight pants. You can see it in that woman whose 

 rustling skirts are drawn up close, and whose chin angles a little upward when 

 she finds some poor woman of the town seated in her pew; in boys and girls, 

 and some of larger growth, whose passport contains nothing but the honorable 

 stations their fathers have occupied. But it is with gratitude to our institu- 

 tions, and the common sense that has preserved them, that the happy fact is 

 recorded that massive fortunes are seldom inherited, and the blood of royalty 

 never. The millionaires of the country are the poor boys of a few years since, 

 and the Avealthy of the past are now represented in name by men of average 

 means, or the poorest in our midst. The sons and daughters of honorable 

 parents who were high in distinction, and for whom the parental cloak formed 

 a warm garment in youth, we now find shivering in the cold wind of public 

 opinion, unless they are filling well the niche they occupy by their own 

 exertions. 



Thus far has my paper touched but lightly a few notes upon the keyboard 

 of modern society. But for a moment or so I would ask you to consider the 

 farmers social rank under two heads: — First, collectively, and Second, indi- 

 vidually. By collectively I mean that it is not simply a privilege which farmers 

 have to protect and advance their own interests by united effort, but that it is 

 also a duty which they owe their profession, their posterity, and their country. 

 Not that duty points to an aggressive warfare upon other trades and occupa- 

 tions ; but in a republican form of government, where man is a sovereign, 

 and where every interest must find within itself its own advancement and 

 defence, I believe it to be as truly a duty for any honorable pursuit to guard 

 its well being by individual or united effort, as it is for the loyal citizen to 

 stand between his country and its enemies. The honor of agriculture is 



