84: AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND 



stock, but I was not sure. However, Mr. Dinsmore 

 and I enjoyed. As we are at it I may as well finish 

 my evening in introducing you to Mr. Dinsmore, and 

 let you know his humour. As we were walking through 

 our green houses looking at plants, he said : Menand ! 

 you have very fine plants but by God ! he said you 

 charge for them like the devil you skin you rob 

 people ! ain't it ? Maybe I do, " but one thing is cer- 

 tain, if you had never robbed your customers any more 

 than I have robbed mine," to-day you could not afford 

 to buy any ! Why ? because you would have no money 

 to pay for ! He laughed and said : An expressman is 

 not a gardener ! I know it, a gardener can only rob his 

 customers in retail and only once in a long while; 

 whilst the express man robs the public Daily Whole- 

 sale and retail all the year round. You probably think 

 he got mad ? Not the least, for in less than half an hour 

 I had sold him for $200 or more, and every time he 

 came he acted about the same ; he lived upon jokes as 

 bees on honey. Many persons have told me he was a 

 rough, coarse man ; perhaps he was in words but not 

 in actions as far as I have known, and I have dealt 

 with him 25 or 30 years and I have known some of his 

 deeds in philanthropy that many sanctified hypocrites 

 would not have done unless every body had seen them 

 doing good, when he would do good in secret ! ! ! I 

 have known a philanthropic lady, Mrs. Miller, in his 



