1855. 



NE^Y ENGLAND FARMER. 



83 



HARD TIMES. 



"When the wealthy luercluint is compelled to 

 borrow money at two per cent, a month to meet 

 his liabilities, he complains of hard times. "U'hen 

 the manufacturer finds his expenses to exceed his 

 profits, and receives no dividends, he complains 

 of hard times. When stocks and lands are low 

 in the markets, the lawyer and doctor, and all 

 those Avho have laid away a surplus for a rainy 

 day, imagine they know something of hard 

 times. But none of these people, though they 

 complain most bitterly, are the real sufferers, in 

 such hard times as now exist in our cities. The 

 merchant may fail in his business, and the manu- 

 facturer may stop his machinery — they may as- 

 sign their estates for the benefit of their creditors, 

 and take the benefit of the Insolvent act, but 

 still they live in fine houses, their tables are 

 abundantly provided, and their children well 

 clothed and educated. They may suffer from dis- 

 appointed ambition, but not from hunger, or 

 cold, or nakedness. There is a class, however, 

 whose idea of hard times is not limited by ina- 

 bility to pay their debts, or to educate tbeir chil- 

 dren, or to wear fashionable clothing. There 

 are hundreds, nay thousands, who have been, un- 

 til recently, in comfortable condition, receiving 

 liberal compensation for their la1)or, who rise in 

 the morning, not knowing when or how they 

 shall find food for the day, for their little ones, 

 — willing to labor, but unemployed — thousands 

 who have been bred and educated with the idea, 

 that to receive charity is a disgrace to an Ameri- 

 can, who yet see no way but through the alms- 

 house to avoid actual starvation. Such is the 

 condition of many thousands in New York, of 

 some, even, in our favored city of Boston. 



"The poor ye have always with you," is a 

 text, which they who have more than a bare 

 competency, should bear constantly in mind. 



How our duty to the poor can best be per- 

 formed, is a problem which has never, by states- 

 men and philosopliers, been satisfactorily solved. 

 Pul)lic charities, permanently established, l)y 

 means of which food and clotliing are systematic- 

 ally distributed, may undoubtedly tend to render 

 the poor improvident, and to overcome the true 

 pride of independence, while private individual 

 charity seems wholly inadequate to meet the de- 

 mands of humanity. 



Again, while we have enough and to spare for 

 all wlio are born on our own soil, we sec some- 

 times, in a single day, tens of tiiousands landed 

 at once in a single city, a great proportion house- j 

 less and friendless, to perish by starvation, or to 

 excite your charity. Of the riglit of foreign gov- 

 ernments thus to flood our country, with the| 

 poor, and often the criminal, there is probably! 

 little diff.'renco of opinion. But our duty, as| 



men and as Christians, is limited to no country, 

 and to no sect. Doubtless, charity should begin 

 at home, with our family, and friends, and kin- 

 dred, and townsmen, and countrymen, but it 

 should end only wit our moans and opportunity 

 for doing good to our fellow-men. "The poor ye 

 have always with you," and he whose heart is in 

 the right place, will be puzzled with no nice 

 questions of politics or ethics, how "to do them 

 good," while he who loves his money better than 

 his brother may find objections to every mode of 

 relief suggested. "I know," says a modern wri- 

 ter, "how hard it is to see through a dollar, 

 though misery stand behind it, if the dollar be 

 your own, and the misery belong to your broth- 

 er." 



In this blessed land of plenty, it is enough for 

 us to know that our fellow-men are hungry and 

 naked, to make our duty plain to feed and clothe 

 them. Let us make them comfortable first, and 

 afterwards preach to them of the doctrines of 

 religion, and the true relations of social life. 



To the farmer, the present distress brings a 

 lesson that cannot be too deeply read. While 

 misery, naked and hungry, is scared from her 

 midnight haunts, and walks at noonday in the 

 market-place of our cities, maddened almost to 

 rebellion against the law — wliile the mechanics 

 in some of our cities are holding meetings in pub- 

 lic places, avowing principles, which, if carried 

 out, would lead to all the horrors of a Parisian 

 mob — there is no lack of abundance with the 

 farmer. 



Overtrading, excess of importation, the failure 

 of banks and railroads, have no terrors for him. 

 Nature is his banker, and her discounts are not 

 suspended, when his distress is the sorest. His 

 small depositc of seed in her vaults, is returned 

 with usury in alnindant harvests. Is it not a 

 fact, that the rural districts of New England 

 are, at this time, in a condition of comfort and 

 abundance, while everywhere else are heard cries 

 of deep distress ? This is no accidental circum- 

 stance. It is a legitimate result of agricultural 

 life. Again and again, we have urged this view 

 upon our readers, when our young men were 

 rushing from the homes of their fathers, into the 

 cities and towns, to swell the already crowded 

 avenues of trade and manufiicturcs. 



Let us again repeat what has often been said 

 already in our columns, that the life of the far- 

 mer who owns the land he tills, is the life most 

 favorable to true independence and the highest 

 virtue. Stick to the laud, and invest your mon- 

 ey, if you have any, in your farming business, 

 remembering that the common prayer, "let mo 

 be quickly rich," is seldom answered, and if ever, 

 oftenost to the hurt of him who utters it. — 

 Comfort and education and peace may be univer- 



