188 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



should no longer take my journal a superfluous 

 trouble, which could only have meant dictation or 

 insult, since they had only to refrain from renewing 

 their subscriptions, and their Tribune would stop 

 coming, whenever they should have received what 

 we owed them ; and it would in no case stop till 

 then. That a journalist was in any sense a public 

 teacher that he necessarily had convictions, and was 

 not likely to suppress them because they Were not 

 shared by others in short, that his calling was other 

 and higher than that of a waiter at a restaurant, ex- 

 pected to furnish whatever was called for, so long as 

 the pay was forthcoming' these ex-subscribers had 

 evidently not for one moment suspected. That such 

 persons have little or no capacity to insult, is very 

 true ; and yet, a man is somewhat degraded in his 

 own regard by learning that his vocation is held in 

 such low esteem by others. The true farmer is 

 proudly aware that it is quite otherwise with his pur- 

 suit that no one expects him to swallow any creed, 

 support any party, or defer to any prejudice, as a 

 condition precedent to the sale of his products. 

 Hence, I feel that it is easier and more natural in his 

 pursuit than in any other for a man to work for a 

 living, and aspire to success and consideration, with- 

 out sacrificing self-respect, compromising integrity, 

 or ceasing to be essentially and thoroughly a gentle- 

 man. 



