THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 307 



change, and learn how rosy are their views of life, how 

 bright their anticipations of the future. It would be 

 still more interesting to ride up with the head of the 

 house, in his elegant coach with liveried servant, to his 

 superb mansion in the fashionable quarter of the city ; 

 to enter with him and see how luxurious are all the 

 appointments of the establishment; how soft and deep 

 the carpets into which one's foot sinks noiselessly ; how 

 rich the frescoes, how superb the furniture, and how 

 beautiful the general appearance of the place. It would 

 be interesting, we say, to see all these, the evidences of 

 wealth earned in the successful prosecution of the busi- 

 ness of buying and selling grain ; and it would be even 

 more interesting, and should be deeply instructive, to 

 go from these scenes of splendor, and visit in succession 

 the homes of the farmers in whose grain the house that 

 has been so successful has been operating. One might 

 take the names from the accounts in the merchant's 

 ledger. What a contrast there would be ! Jt would 

 be like passing from the master's mansion to the cabins 

 of the slaves on a Southern plantation in the ante- 

 bellum days. What a succession of plain and often 

 unattractive homes we should find ! Instead of the 

 elegant mistress of the city mansion, we should find 

 the worn, anxious, prematurely old fanner's wife, 

 whose dreams of an easier lot have faded before the 

 unceasing toil and care demanded of her. Instead 

 of the fat, rosy, well-dressed middle-man, we should 

 find the farmer in homespun, with hard, brown hand, 

 and a man worn down in body and soul with care and 

 toil in the present and anxiety for the future. In- 

 stead of the cheery views of the middle-man, we 

 should find heavy-hearted broodings over the unsatie- 



