CHAPTER X 



SOME ADVENTURES IN PHILANTHROPY 



ONE thing that to the farmer's substantial 

 injuries added an incessant irritant was 

 not of a nature to appear before investigating 

 committees, and yet had a definite effect in 

 bringing about his revolt. I have referred 

 to it before as it presented itseK. It was this 

 constant easy assumption of politicians and 

 lawyers of the governing class that he was 

 only a good-natured rustic clown and could 

 be hoodwinked indefinitely. I am not deny- 

 ing that the farmer brought some of this on 

 his own head by persistently voting for some- 

 body else at the polls and never voting for 

 himself; but that did not lessen the sting of 

 it. The professional candidate was always 

 coming out of his law oflSce about election- 

 time to deal in the same time-worn flatteries, 

 to shake ostentatiously the farmer's knobby 

 hand, to slap him on the back and inquire 

 with transparent eagerness about the health 

 of his grandmother, and to pass from these 

 employments to the making of laws that 



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