30 SYLVAN SECRETS. 



poor is quite entitled to air his opinions touch- 

 ing the doings of his own tribe of men, and 

 we are bound to give his opinions consider- 

 able weight. But when one is in the woods 

 and as free as the breeze one is apt to smile at 

 any mere opinion. At this distance men ap- 

 pear to be divided into two classes, — viz. : cap- 

 italists and those who would very much like 

 to be capitalists. The capitalists are glad 

 they are capitalists, and the others are angry 

 because they are not capitalists. I say that 

 thus it looks to a free man far down in the 

 Southern woods, no matter what Ruskin or 

 the anarchists may say. It is curious to note 

 how surely every argument against the nat- 

 ural processes of human intercourse and gov- 

 ernment tends toward anarchy. Worldly 

 wisdom long ago constructed, by a process 

 of crystallization, the only true economy — 

 namely, that controlled by the principle of 

 make and keep. The laborer is worthy of his 

 hire and he must have it, but he must save 

 a part of it if he would become independent. 

 This is all that can be said from now till 

 doomsday. The laborer is the only free man. 

 So soon as he ceases to be a laborer he is no 

 longer free, and so the danger to organized 

 laborers bound in a body is the loss of per- 

 sonal liberty in the loss of the right to labor 

 at will. 



But we must not let Euskin lead us into the 

 labor question; for how can we think clearly 

 on such a subject here in this dim wood, with 

 the lazy, balmy breeze fanning us, and the 

 gulf waves murmuring at our feet? Give us 

 a vision of the stones of Venice, O large- 

 hearted but impractical Ruskin! or lead us 

 over to Rome, or to Verona in a trance, but 

 do not mention political or domestic economy 



