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good, thrifty, industrious farmers. It is a lie! a base slan- 

 der to call such stupid slavery of body, such starvation of 



mind, good or thrifty, or in any wise commendable. 



"Go into the country, and you will find numberless 

 cases of men with poor health, crushed energies, ruined 

 constitutions, and stunted souls, and women the slaves of 

 habits of excessive labor, more fatal than the pernicious 

 and much-condemned customs of fashionable society. You 

 will find children prematurely old, with the bright light 

 of happy childhood extinguished, and everywhere a lack 

 of that life and cheerfulness which gives to life its greatest 

 charms. Most of these evils can be traced directly to over- 

 work. Is such work necessary or even profitable for a far- 

 mer? Most certainly not. Such work is a losing business, 

 and farmers who adopt that course of labor will find at the 

 end of the season that themselves, their wives, and children 

 are worn and discouraged, and have not accomplished as 

 much as had been attempted or expected. Why? Because 

 they have worked like oxen and not like men, and have 

 depended on muscle alone instead of making it an auxili- 

 ary of the mind, and they treat themselves to the luxur}' 

 of a good, long, hearty growl at members of all other in- 

 dustries for combining to oppress the poor farmer. They 

 growl at the shoemaker; they growl at the merchant; they 

 growl at the railroad; they growl at the commission men; 

 they growl at everybody and everything that lives by using 

 its wits in sponging, cheating, and oppressing the hard- 

 working farmer. This horde of cormorants are growled at, 

 whined at, and snarled at, because they filch from the far- 

 mer his hard-earned dollars and live in luxury and ease 

 thereon. Speakers at agricultural and political meetings, 

 and writers in agricultural papers repeat these complaints, 

 and ring the same charges over and over again, in season 

 and out of season, until themselves and most farmers real- 

 ly believe that the tillers of the soil are the most industri- 

 ous, moral, intelligent, hardworking, abused, persecuted 



