PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 89 



whole there is gross negligence in that respect. If a man who was 

 unworthy understood that he could not get a job — I don't know, but I 

 think he would either go to the penitentiary or would reform, and I 

 believe it would be well to put him to the test. But so long as he is all 

 right, so long as he is a worthy man, in our farm life as it is at present 

 conducted he should be treated as respectfully as your neighbor by your- 

 self and family. 



In turn, he must do the same. If there were very many young men 

 present, I would like to say a word to them. I recollect a piece of good 

 advice I received when I was working by the month in Missouri. An old 

 gentleman I worked for was appointed circuit judge, and we fell to talk- 

 ing of the relations between the hired man and his employer, and he 

 said: " Well, I can tell you how you can always have a place. If you are 

 smart enough to make a man believe that he can't get along without 

 you, 3'ou will always keep the place as long as you want it." That is a 

 very simple proposition, but it is noticeable that the young man who, 

 when he starts in at a place, no matter what he has agreed to do for a 

 price, goes through and does that exactly, whether he is satisfied or not, 

 does his duty and works for his employer's interests, is sure to have a 

 place if there is one in the whole country. Don't think for a moment, 

 young man, that you are not understood. If you are on the farm of a 

 man who has been in the habit of hiring men right along, the little traits 

 of character have become well understood by him; if you are occasionally 

 " making a sneak " or doing something you would not do ^hen he was 

 looking, it will show up. A man who has had any experience knows 

 what a day's work is, whether he is on the ground or not. Men capable 

 of hiring men and making money usually have a means of knowing 

 whether a man is doing his duty. He may not tell you, but generally 

 you will find a man of that character, when he sets a man on a job, he 

 knows what he should accomplish. You can go away and leave a man 

 and come back, and you have tab on him, the same as the night watch- 

 man's signal in the large buildings. Now, most farmers have some 

 system whereby they keep tab on the hired man. He may, in the rush 

 of the season, put up with a great deal ; he may not be williug to discharge 

 the man, because he can not put his hand on another, and he will make 

 the best of a poor thing; but you can depend upon it, he knows all about 

 it, he has you " spotted " for a laj^-off, and when the time comes that 

 he can spare you, and you haven't got him where he thinks you are 

 indispensable, you go. But the moment he sees that you have a dispo- 

 sition to push things when they need pushing, and to earn the money 

 you agreed to earn, he is going to keep you as long as he keeps any man. 

 if the other essentials are present. 



A young man has no business to start out in life on the farm without a 

 little style about him. A young man who comes from doing the chores 

 in the morning, from the barn to the house, in an unclean condition, 

 and sits down to his breakfast in that waj', is not pleasant to any 

 woman. It is a very unpleasant thing, and a little thought will tell you 

 how to get rid of it — just a little attention to cleanliness, perhaps a little 

 change of clothing. Some men are smart enough to keep a different suit 

 of clothes in the barn, and leave the bad smell with the clothes. It is 

 12 



