78 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tlemen ever see a bald-headed Yankee rubbing his head with a red 

 bandana you can make up your minds that great things are to happen. 

 He finally got up and said he had figured it out right. As he put it, the 

 horse did not have weight according to his strength, so he put me on the 

 horse's back and he said this extra weight would hold the horse's feet 

 on the ground for a better purchase. I give you my word that it acted 

 just as he said it would, for when I got on old Hero's back he pulled 

 the log. I have found since then that men are at their best when at 

 some time in their life they run up against hard propositions and pov- 

 erty. You show me the young man, brougnt up under hard conditions, to 

 realize the necessity of toil and the glory of labor and the power to 

 overcome natural forces, and I will show you the making of a man. 

 Show me, on the other hand, the boy brought up as though comfort and 

 luxury were his natural heritage; the parents sending him to college, 

 just simply because it is a part of a gentleman's training, gratify his 

 every wish and will not make him work, and as a rule I will show you 

 a weak, nervous, good for nothing creature, who is more likely to be a 

 disgrace to his country. Under the shadow of these great cities in the 

 East there are boys and girls who are ashamed of honest poverty. We 

 have some of them near where I live. When they get to be 19 or 20 

 years old they leave the farm, boarding at home with mother, but going 

 to and from the city every day. They obtain a job at small pay; they 

 dress as well as they can and are ashamed of the evidences of honest 

 economy. Sometimes you will see the boy coming and going, carrying a 

 dress suit case on which you will see labels of Rome, Naples and other 

 European cities. Some friend brought these across to him and he has 

 pasted them on his case. What do you suppose we would find in that case 

 if we opened it? Very likely two sandwiches, a boiled egg and a piece of 

 pie. These people are ashamed to be seen carrying their lunch in their 

 hands, ashamed of the lunch mother gave them and which father pro- 

 vided. Poor, foolish, ignorant fellows they think they can carry their 

 dress suit case in their hand so that people will really think they are 

 wealthy young men going out for an evening party. I regret to say that 

 some of this also applies to the girls. You will see some of them com- 

 ing and going with a music roll. As a matter of fact they couldn't play 

 the tune that the old cow died of, and yet they would like to have people 

 think that they are great musicians or that they are going to take a 

 music lesson, when all they have in the roll is their lunch. You will 

 see young men in New York who will eat 10 cents worth of pork and 

 beans for their lunch and go and stand on the steps in front of the 

 Astor house and pick their teeth. I sincerely hope that these false ideas 

 of a man's real condition have not yet come to life seriously out here. 

 Some of these people outgrow this foolishness. It is kicked out of some 

 by the hard boot of adversity, or lashed out by the sting of poverty or 

 self-respect. With others it remains and ruins the man or woman who 

 starts that way. 



I have spoken of the results which come to us through our highly de- 

 veloped markets. I fear that some of you men in the West have really 

 made up your minds that the eastern farmers are on the verge of ruin; 



