520 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



depending for its coloring upon the business of the 

 orator, as this is the stand-point from which we are 

 viewed, and, of course, this view determines the nature 

 of the picture. Lawyers and doctors in beautiful 

 colors paint the nobleness and independence of the 

 farmer's life. They tell us we are the most intelligent, 

 moral, healthy, and industrious class in all the land, 

 and all our present is calm and our future happy. 

 Merchants tell us that no business is so sure and free 

 from care as farming, and that in no other calling do so 

 few men end in bankruptcy. Politicians laud in sten- 

 torian tones the f honest yeomanry,' ' the sinews of the 

 land,' the ' bulwarks of our nation's liberties,' ' the 

 coarse blouse of homespun which covers the true and 

 honest heart,' and deluges more of equally fulsome and 

 nauseating stuff. 



" Soft-handed agricultural editors give long disserta- 

 tions on the necessity of saving all the spare moments, 

 and converting them into some useful purpose. They 

 tell us how rainy days may be laboriously used in 

 mending old rake-handles, and winter evenings utilized 

 by pounding oak logs into basket stuff, while our wives 

 and daughters can nobly assist in averting bank- 

 ruptcy by weaving the baskets or ingeniously making 

 one new lamp-wick out of the remains of three old 

 ones. 



" It has never occured to these very wise instructors 

 that farmers and farmers' families are human beings, 

 with human feelings, human hopes and ambitions, and 

 human desires. It will doubtless be a matter of sur- 

 prise for them to learn that farmers may possibly enter- 

 tain some wish to enjoy life, and have some other 

 object in life besides everlasting hard work and ac~ 



