MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 411 



SAVED OR DAMNED. 



Do we judge the professions solely, or even in great part, by the 

 miserable exceptions .'' To many people the very name of "Lawyer' 

 is a synonym for everything of trickery, and yet every man who has ob • 

 tained, by contact with them, any correct idea of lawyers know that 

 there are many of them who live and act in an upper atmosphere where 

 is no taint of deceit nor any stain of dishonor. 



Do we fail to trust the physicians we have known for years because 

 of the disgraceful crew of noisy quacks, and of shameless empirics who 

 buy their diplomas and fill our papers with their conscienceless adver- 

 tisements ? 



As a body the clergy of all denominations has very largely the con- 

 fidence of the American people, for all the fact that among them may 

 once in a while be found a hypocrite or a villian. 



We may safely challenge any just comparison between the estab- 

 lished nurserymen aud seedsmen of the United States and the members 

 of any of the professions. I do not include the floating frauds who are 

 here to-day and yonder to-morrow. They are pirates, they are beasts 

 of prey, they are reptiles. Nor the man, rich though he may be, who 

 sending out from one place piles fraud upon fraud, year after year, ignor- 

 ing exposures, always seeking new victims, peddling his wares by means 

 of every new invented cheatery. If he has any parallel among our social 

 existences it is the painted harlot. The State Horticulture Society of 

 Minnesota did well when, at its meeting of January, 1887, it thoroughly 

 overhauled May & Co.; and the State Society of Ohio, when D. M. Fer- 

 ry & Co. were effectually discussed. 



It is wonder and pity that more persons do not learn how to bud 

 and to graft, to layer and to plant and to handle cuttings and bulbs ; 

 but the fact remain that very few of the people will do much of their 

 own propagating ; so the nurseryman must handle all these for the 

 public ; and the time has passed when we can afford to save our own 

 garden seeds. Seedsmen of long experience and of established reputa- 

 tion can produce better seeds than we can, and are sending them to us 

 cheap enough. Nurserymen and seedsmen, we need them both If one 

 or the other cheats us once it is his fault — if he cheats us the second time 

 it is our own fault ; and if he ever gets the chance to cheat us again we 

 deserve to be cheated. 



From the greatest to the least, first, last and all the time, in all this 

 business, there must be no rascality and but few mistakes. Men must 



