REJPOJ^TS. 6S 



to get discouraged and to talk about the /or west, let them only com-- 

 mence the subject of wool-growing in right earnest, let them people 

 (if we may use the term) these siinny vales and green hill-sides with 

 sheep, and soon, instead of Wisconsin, Iowa, in desponding tones, 

 their glad cry, like the great geometrician of Megara on the comple- 

 tion of his immortal discovery will be " Eiveveka ! Ewercka. !" thus 

 realizing in our own day, the well known fable of the golden Jleece ; 

 for your committee are of the opinion that the Argonauts were only a 

 joint-stock company of enterprising farmers and manufacturers who 

 under Captain Jason, chartered the good ship Argo and run her in the 

 wool-trade down to Colchis where the clip that year was remarkably 

 good, and with such success and profit on their venture that it gave rise 

 to the fable as above ; a fact which may be realized even at this day, by 

 any set of men equally enterprising and persevering and without arm- 

 ing themselves or chartering a ship of war for the purpose* We are 

 further told that on their return the Argonauts made an offering of 

 the entire fleece to Mars, the God of war, which some have interpret- 

 ed to mean a liberal yielding of their profits to those who Avere ready 

 to fight in opposition to the ivool business and manufactures, but 

 without encroaching on the forbidden ground of politics, we leave it 

 entirely to politicians, whose business it is, and who are paid for it, to 

 determine how great concessions, if any, it is the duty of protection- 

 ists and manufacturers of the north to make, to appease the war 

 spirit of the cmti tariffites, and seceeders of the south. 



Sheepskins once formed the only circulating medium, and the very 

 name of money among the ancients, was derived from the Latin word 

 pecus, a sheep or a flock, which has given the name to the term ^' pe- 

 cimiary,'' down to the present day. But little as we know of our 

 subject generally, it will hardly be expected of us itidividually, and 

 we confess to the lamientahle truth of having less experimental 

 knowledge of this part of our subject than of any other, but there 

 are those now living who can remember when sheepskins Avere a laio- 

 ful tender, (would we could say the same now a days, of the mutton 

 which they cover, but alas ! the legitimate and distinctive properties 

 of that article have Exoes,\\dl\j been quite the reverse of tender !) and 

 even at the present day, as we are almost hourly assured by the indi- 

 viduals themselves, sheepskins continue to be received at p>af by that 

 accommodating class of people, the peddlers. 



The Scriptures inform us that the patriarch Jacob tended the flocks 

 of his uncle Laban, seven years, as the stipulated price of her whom 

 he expected shortly to style Mrs. Jacob, a strength of attachment 

 •which we apprehend, often finds a parallel even in these degenerate 

 days ; as we have been credibly informed, that even now the young 

 swains, our farmers' sons, when on such a matrimonial errand, Ewes- 

 ually have their eye on the sheep-fold, out of doors, quite as much as 

 on the damsel inside ; this is a commendable act of prudence, too, 



