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He that Is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.— Luke 16:10. 



MYSELF AND MY NEIGHBOKS. 



anj' thing that is 



Thou shalt not covot . . 

 thy neighbor's.— Ex. 'iSS: IT. 



flllS subject of our iieiglibors has been 

 brought prominently to my mind this 

 morning by contemplating the Bohe- 

 mian-oat swindle. \\\ order to bring 

 - the subject before the friends, I quote 

 the following from the Farm and Fireside of 

 Jan. 1, 1886: 



Originating- in northeastern Ohio, the Bohemian- 

 oats scheme has spread like a poisonous fungus 

 throughout this and most of the neighboring States, 

 until it promises to permeate the length and breadth 

 of the land. Certainly it would seem that no man 

 of average intelligence could fail to see at a glance 

 that somebody must eventually be a heavy loser by 

 this scheme, even were those primarily engaged in 

 it to fulfill their contracts; yet we have been as- 

 tounded to hear mentioned in connection with it 

 the names of men who had previously stood above 

 reproach. This scheme has frequently been de- 

 nounced as a swindle by the local press where it 

 has appeared, but these denunciations have not 

 prevented its reappearance in some distant quarter. 

 Moreover, it has been quite difficult to get at the 

 real plan upon which the scheme was being work- 

 ed, and conscquentlj" the sharpers operating it, by 

 the aid of a few stool-pigeons employed in each 

 new neighborhood, have been able to work it over 

 and over again. In this and the preceding issues 

 of Farm and Fireside we have presented the most 

 complete expose of this business we have yet seen. 

 The reader who follows this expose carefully will 

 see that the scheme is most cunningly devised to 

 feed upon the greed of unprincipled tricksters on 

 the one hand, and Ihe credulity of ignorance on 

 the other; and that unless checked it will bring up- 

 on the farmers of the country an enormous load of 

 distress. 



Even the little boys and girls, I think, can 

 understand this matter if I try to make it 

 plain, and perhaps many of them have heard 



the matter talked over in their families al- 

 ready. When the agricultural papers came 

 out and announced that these oats could be 

 bought for 7-5 cents or $1.00 a bushel, while 

 this association was calling them worth 

 $5.00, and in some cases $10.00 a bushel, it 

 would seem that any child should understand 

 that there was something wrong ; but men 

 who have before been considered good men, 

 and some of them, perhaps, professors of re- 

 ligion, have still pushed aliead, made crazy 

 and greedy by speculation. Some of them 

 have even gone so far as to say, " I don't 

 care if the oats are w'orth only 75 cts. or $1.00 

 a bushel ; so long as these men give me my 

 $5.00 a bushel, what does it matterV" 



When anybody goes to reasoning in that 

 way, you may be sure he is in a bad state of 

 mind. We all of us get into bad states of 

 mind occasionally — that is, the most of us 

 do. Just yesterday morning Iluber was 

 cross and peevish. I reasoned with him a 

 little, but the "cross''' would not go away, 

 lie saw the force of my reasoning, and he 

 knew he ought to be a good boy; but he 

 told the truth, even if he was bad. In reply 

 to my question, he said, " No ! bad boy." I 

 presume he reasoned as I often have, in re- 

 gard to this element of evil that sometimes 

 gets such linn hold of us. lie did not say so, 

 but I thought by his looks he was thinking 

 something this Avay : '' Papa. I know I 

 am a bad boy; but I am trying to be good, 

 and the good won't come. I do not know 

 what it is that makes me bad."' Pretty soon 

 he came to the point where he might have 

 honestly said, " I am sorry T am bad.'' Just 



