COUNTRY LIFE IN THE WEST 39 



reason there is a sharp distinction made between " tired" and 

 " retired" farmers. The hotels and livery stables also are 

 generally kept by this class of tired farmers. 



It seems that every line of business carried on in the towns 

 and small cities in the corn belt is largely in the hands of in- 

 ferior men, though of course there are numerous brilliant ex- 

 ceptions. Almost every town or city will have one or two news- 

 papers, which claim to be the organs of the leading political 

 parties, but which really seem to be published for the purpose 

 of apologizing for their own existence. The manual labor which 

 is done about such towns is almost invariably done by men who 

 are not fit for farm hands. Some are so profane and obscene in 

 their language that a decent farmer would not have them around, 

 but they will work as section hands on the railroad for less 

 wages than farm hands get, and loaf about the depot and the 

 streets at night, play Sunday baseball, and have other similar 

 enjoyments not open to the farm hand. Even a good deal of 

 the mercantile business is carried on by men who do not show 

 a degree of intelligence at all comparable to that of the average 

 farmer. 



One hears a great deal of shockingly bad grammar in the corn 

 country, but correct speech is really a matter of conventionality, 

 and a farmer's success does not depend upon his observance of 

 conventionalities. On the other hand, there are certain things 

 which he must know, and which no amount of suavity or grace 

 or good form will enable him to dispense with. He is dealing 

 with nature rather than with men, and nature can not be de- 

 luded by a pleasant front nor a smooth tongue. One must not 

 be hasty in forming conclusions as to the farmer's intelligence 

 on the basis of his clothes, his knowledge of the forms of polite 

 society, nor even his use of grammar. 



Though the average family is somewhat larger than that of 

 the well-to-do urbanite, there is a manifest decline even in the 

 country districts. Families of four or five children among the 

 native Americans are quite common, but one almost never finds 

 such patriarchal families of ten and twelve children as were 

 common in the days of our grandfathers. The most conspicuous 

 case of this kind that I saw was a family of eight children be- 

 longing to an Iowa farmer. The mother, who is still slightly on 



