MR. URBAN AND A COUNTRY HOUSE 



Query. "Potatoes are a pretty good crop, 

 are they not, Mr. Sloman?" 



Witness. "There an't no better crop, if a 

 man is nigh enough to market to send in a 

 hundred bushels a day without worryin' his 

 team." 



Mr. Sloman being asked his opinion in re- 

 gard to the improved systems of husbandry, 

 replies : 



"Waal, I 've pooty much made up my mind 

 that books is books, and farmin' is farmin.' 

 I 've nothin' to say agin these gentlemen that 

 like to spend money a' ditchin' ; I 've nothin' 

 to say agin a good tidy critter, and you may 

 call her Durham, or you may call her what 

 you like. If she fills a pail she comes up to 

 my idee of a good critter; if she doan't — she 

 doan't. That 's my opmion. May be I 'm 

 wrong; but that 's my way o' lookin' at it." 



An effort is made to bring back the in- 

 quiry to a more definite issue by asking Mr. 

 Sloman "what he thinks about the labor ques- 

 tion?" 



Witness. "Waal, good help is ruther 

 skerce." 



Your intensely practical man under ques- 

 tion — unused to formal investigation — is apt 

 to bring forward the awkward facts that con- 



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