CHAPTER XI 



WHAT CAME OF ONE FARMER'S RUIN 



I HAVE set down in the foregoing pages 

 some citations from the records of a con- 

 dition strange in any republic, and most 

 strange in ours. Doubtless every reader that 

 honors me with his attention will see that I 

 have given only a few of the possible illus- 

 trations. The material at hand extends 

 into hundreds of volumes in courts, legisla- 

 tive bodies, and the document-rooms of Con- 

 gress, where it may easily be pursued farther 

 by the curious. But what is set forth here is 

 enough to show why in one of the most fertile 

 regions of the world, with every advantage of 

 accessibility and great markets, farming was 

 an unprofitable calling. 



So little does one part of the continent 

 know of another and, even when neighbors, 

 so little do men of one vocation know about 

 men of another, that outside of farming itself 

 everybody believes to the contrary about it. 

 Especially since the beginning of the war the 

 joy of the agriculturist has been supposed to 



181 



