ON THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A HIRED MAN 551 



superiority over the average experimenter. In the first place, I 

 was a real hired man. The sociological tramp or beggar must 

 feel that the note-book which he carries under his rags is a bar- 

 rier to a full sympathy with his subject ; and he must admit that 

 if he became the real thing, the first thing he would do would 

 be to pawn his fountain pen for the price of a drink. Again, I 

 embody this experience in a treatise only after twenty years of 

 meditation on my data. This last custom I strongly commend 

 to all sociological writers. What a gain to sociological literature 

 if practical experiences were never served to the public until they 

 had ripened twenty years in the brain of the scientist ! 



Hoping I have won your confidence, I now begin on the first 

 chapter of my book. No, I forget : I must first insert a chapter 

 setting forth the importance of my theme and the neglect which 

 it has suffered in the past at the hands of other writers. 



This importance and this previous neglect are so self-evident, 

 however, that a sentence or two must convince you of their ex- 

 istence. Page after page is written on the tramp, the grafter, 

 the lace-maker, and what not ; but how many articles have you 

 seen setting forth the condition of the hired man, that patient, 

 unorganized, unstriking but all-important factor in the machin- 

 ery of an agricultural people ? That he may be neglected no 

 longer, I will cut this chapter down to a single paragraph and 

 proceed at once to my second chapter, The Remuneration of the 

 Hired Man. 



During my time adult hired men got from fifteen to seven- 

 teen dollars a month, board, room, washing, and lodgings included. 

 In some exceptional cases more was paid. At the present time 

 wages are a little higher from seventeen to twenty dollars a 

 month. In other words, it takes the earnings of about five days 

 to buy a pair of top boots and overalls, while in my time it took 

 about a day longer. To earn a top buggy now requires the sav- 

 ings of about four months, and to earn a suit of good clothes 

 requires a full month longer. So counting in the expense of 

 horse feed the hired man usually owns a horse nearly a 

 whole season's work is needed to properly equip the farm laborer 

 for the pleasures of the winter literary society, singing school, 



