T1JE TIM BUNKER TAPERS. 267 



didn t amount to much, and I couldn t get even a butcher 

 to talk of beef cattle more than five minutes. Every old 

 acquaintance I met offered me oil stocks, as if it was a 

 medicine and I was ailing badly. I was told they were 

 going to get up an exchange on purpose to sell ile stocks. 

 The papers were all full of it, advertising companies with 

 a capital anywhere from a quarter of a million up to ten 

 millions. And it is not much better out here in the coun 

 try. These things are advertised in the religious papers, 

 holding out to everybody the prospect of sudden riches. 

 The women get hold of the papers and read these adver 

 tisements just as if they were law and gospel, being in a 

 religious paper, and indorsed by the editors, you see. I 

 am afraid they read more about ile than they do about 

 religion. It does seem as if everybody s face was shining 

 with ile. They get all stirred up, and half the time for 

 get to wash the dishes, or get the dinner into the wrong 

 pot. They carry the matter to the minister, as they do all 

 their other troubles, and he thinks there may be something 

 in it. Then they tease their husbands to buy stock, and 

 dream of rivers of ile and fine houses. &quot; What is the use 

 of scrubbing away at the wash-tub, or grubbing with a 

 hoe, when you can have somebody pump money into your 

 pocket just as easy as you pump water into a pail ? &quot; 



Now you see, Mr. Editor, this business has gone about 

 far enough. It is unsettling the foundations, as Mr. 

 Spooner would say. It is well enough for people who 

 have got money to throw away, to go into these specula 

 tions. They may make a heap of money, and they may 

 lose every cent. Farmers, generally, are not of this class. 

 There is nothing we want so much as more capital in our 

 business. If I put a hundred dollars into tile drains, or 

 into a mowing machine, or a stone digger, I am sure to 

 get a good dividend. If I put it into ile stock, I may get 

 three per cent a month, but more likely I shall not get 

 three cents in as many years. Keep your capital where 



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