14 THE LARGER ASPECTS OF FARM LIFE. 



in markets outside his general vicinity was very small; 

 his average trade with the outside world would not probably 

 exceed $50 or $75 a year. He received very little money, and 

 kept it almost no time at all; his currency was the notes of 

 banks that he knew nothing about and smooth Mexican silver 

 that would not circulate elsewhere. The young man got his 

 "start" by being permitted to raise a pair of steers or a colt or 

 two on the family farm, and by working out at odd jobs. If 

 by the time he was twenty-five he had saved a couple of 

 hundred dollars, or his fatlier could help him make up that 

 sum, he would buy a piece of timber land, cut the logs for his 

 house, which the neighbors would help him raise, marry, and 

 start to follow his father's footsteps. He would have a sheep 

 or two from the farm, his wife would bring a feather bed and 

 bedding, a cow, and such crockery as could be gotten hold of, 

 and a new family was founded. This was the lot of the 

 thrifty. The unthrifty married earlier, got hold of some kind 

 of a house, worked out for a living, multiplied rapidly, and 

 died off. But for the most part they were thrifty after a 

 fashion and prospered. The land was new and abundant, 

 with plenty more "out West," and the people had all the 

 knowledge required to put it to the best economic use possible 

 at the time. They were, therefore, in the main well nour- 

 ished, sturdy, free from worry, and therefore happy. The 

 farmer of those days was a producer and manufacturer, with 

 the knowledge requisite for conducting his business, and a 

 standard of comfort which his business would maintain. He 

 was the independent man. 



