188.5 



CLEANINGS IN UEE CULTURE. 



6-1.5 



remarked that it generally cost him so much 

 a bushel, iuchidiug mowing down the weeds 

 to get at the potatoes. Some of friend Ter- 

 ry's neiglibors will have to mow down the 

 weeds this fall before they can dig their po- 

 tatoes, I fear ; and the general appearance 

 in his vicinity indicated that his neighbors 

 — at least some of tliem — were not more 

 go-ahead than lie had given them credit for 

 being ; that is, in his writing on agriculture. 

 And the need of reform is not confined to 

 liis own locality — it is widespread. But, 

 dear friends, we make a sad, sad mistake 

 when, in looking at these evils to be en- 

 countered right and left, we forget or omit 

 to take into consideration tlie good traits as 

 well. I shall have to confess right here tliat 

 it comes so extremely natural for me to find 

 fault, and to ciiticise, that 1 find it hard to 

 get over my besetting sin in my illustrations 

 even. J^et me try here. 



My cousin, Mr. Fenn, told a story some- 

 thing like tliis : lie had a nice new harrow, 

 with the teeth all bright, and the woodwork 

 nicely painted, and he was so choice of it 

 that he would not even let it b3 out one 

 minute in the rain. A neighbor wanted it. 

 lie hated to say no, just as you and I do; 

 and after a fair and sipiare promise that it ^ 

 should come right straight back because he i 

 was going to need it, it went out of the liarn- i 

 yard. The time came when lie wanted to 

 use it, and business was hurrying, and there ' 

 was" no time to go after it, so he got along 

 with a rickety old one. Finally he met the [ 

 neighbor who borrowed it, and asked him 

 about it. 



''• Why, I lent it to Dr. W.. and lie said he 

 would fetch it right home, just the minute 

 he got his ground fixed." 



It did not come, and after a few days they 

 got over needing any harrows. Some time 

 in the middle of our last long cold winter, 

 Mr. F. was passing the doctor's residence, 

 and down in a sluice-way by the side of the 

 road he saw some sharp points sticking uj) 

 out of a huge block of ice. These points 

 looked like the teeth to that nice new har- 

 row. He is (luite a man for dry jokes, so he 

 stopped at the doctor's residence and called 

 attention to the matter something in this 

 way : 



"Look here, doctor, there are some sharp- 

 pointed instruments sticking out of that 

 block of ice down there that seem to me a 

 little dangerous. If somel)ody should get 

 thrown out of a veliicle, and alight on them, 

 it would l)e a terrible place to fall." 



Having delivered his message, he turned 

 around to go ; but tlie doctor exclaimed, 

 " \Vhy, I declare, neighbor F., I do believe 

 that those points are the teeth to your har- 

 row, which 1 very carelessly neglected to re- 

 turn as I promised to do. lam very sorry—" 

 etc. I do not know when the liarrow got 

 home— probably some time in the spring, 

 when it got thawed out of the ice. Do you 

 ask why I tell such a story as this when I am 

 trying to make a plea for poor humanity ? 

 AVell, I have told it because I Avant to .say 

 that, in all ])robal)ility. Dr. W.is a good man 

 in s)tite of this bad habit of his. As his pro- 

 fession inii>lies.he is a puldic servant, and, I 

 dare say, a whole - souled, and. generally 



speaking, faithful servant. Borrowing tools, 

 and leaving them to be frozen in blocks of 

 ice. is a grievous fault, I admit : but it is by 

 no means the worst fault a man can be 

 guilty of. Perhaps it does not compare with 

 things that you and I are guiltv of at this 

 very moment. ]Men who are guilty of these 

 faults are, as a rule, those who are large- 

 hearted, liberal, and accommodating. I do 

 not reconimend this kind of " large-hearted- 

 ness,'' mind you, but I do recommend that 

 we take liold of such obstacles fairly and 

 squarely and cheerfully. What I mean by 

 obstacles is sins like those I have mention- 

 ed. Don't get into a way of saying, •■ * And 

 I. even I only.' am the only good man in the 

 neighborhood." Why, wliat an awful thing 

 it is for you to get the idea into your head 

 that your neighbors are all full of faults, 

 and that you alone are perfect I May be 

 you are aliead of them in some thing — you 

 ought to be — but very likely they are ahead 

 of you in ever so many other things. "We 

 be brethren " is a thousand times better to 

 think, than to get up on our high-heeled 

 shoes and keep saying over and over to our- 

 self, •• I, even I only." 



We have trouble with the railroad and 

 express companies. We say they have no 

 souls. Words and phases have been coined, 

 especially by the farming community, to ex- 

 ])res3 how these large corporatioiis will 

 cheat and swindle i)eoitle. I am guilty too, 

 dear friends, and i pray that (iod may for- 

 give me. and help me to do better. I know 

 I have taken the part of the railroad and ex- 

 press comjianies several times; and after 

 having done so there is a kind of feeling in 

 my heart that I have done right. I feel a 

 great deal happier for having tried to think of 

 their good (pialities, than to settle down in- 

 to such wholesale denunciations as we often 

 do. Almost while I am writing, some mon- 

 ey has been handed in from the railroad 

 company for wax they lost out of a barrel 

 last February. It took a long wliile, it is 

 true; and I think / have been in the habit 

 of saying, in an ironical sort of way, "'It takes 

 them for everlasting to right a wrong, if they 

 ever do get to it at all." Such an expression 

 is not right. Our shipments go over a great 

 many different railroad lines, frequently. It 

 is a comi)]icated matter to trace it back and 

 decide where the fault lies, even if it is pos- 

 sible to decide at all. Our sliort line of road, 

 to whom the complaint is first made, receives 

 only a few cents for handling a barrel of 

 wax. In running over the papers for tracing 

 up overcharges, shortage, etc., I have some- 

 times noticed that one company would re- 

 ceive an amount as small as nine cents, 

 seventeen cents, or some odd amount of 

 change, showing how carefully and minutely 

 the profits were divided up. Now, with 

 even this small pay tliey frequently have to 

 go through a whole"^ string of papers to get a 

 little wrong righted. Is it any wonder that 

 it takes them a considerable amomit of 

 time? Are we not, dear friends, a good 

 way off from where a Christian ought to 

 stand, when we speak as we do about their 

 delinquencies? "Wefaimers are honest; but 

 the railroad companies steal and lie and 

 cheat, and won't make any thing right, even 



