THE OLD PLANTER. 
would fall to pieces, but did n’t. After a short lapse 
of times it just went as smoothly as if it had not 
lain in a dark corner for a few years, but twenty 
bushels an hour seemed, for a time, to make no 
impression on the large heap of coffee. The old 
pulper was uorked day and night by relays of coolies, 
it was never stopped, until the whole mass of coffee 
was fairly pulped off. When this was done, the new^ 
machinery was set agoing and the old pulper replaced 
in the dark corner of the store. Who would ever 
have supposed, when looking at the hue w^ater- wheel 
with machinery attached, that there would ever have 
been any occasion to call out the old pulper, or if 
so, that ifc could ever have done what it did ? 
Just so with the old planter : he may be partially 
wanting, not “up to ” all the scientific and wonderful 
improvements of the present time. Most certainly he 
is not a- double pulper and crusher with water-wheel 
attached, but do not crush him ; if he won’t be con- 
vinced, let him alone ; those who don’t or can’t float 
with the stream current will probably, after a time, 
find themselves in some quiet eddy making regular 
and monotonous circles under the shade of the bank. 
Why should those who are going with the current 
disturb their quiet and harmless life? They are not 
in the w^ay ; nothing they do or can do in the quiet 
eddy will disturb the onward course of the river. 
It has frequently happened that even those who 
were loudest in their sneers as the old planter have 
sometimes been fain to seek him out for consultation 
and advice on some difficult question, and even if his 
advice or opinion, if acted upon, turned out of no 
avail, it was an after satisfaction to the sufferer that 
he had consulted the old planter ; he had done all 
that he could, he had taken the advice of one who 
ought to know something on this matter, and so he 
was relieved of some mental responsibility, or it may 
be self-reproach, if he had failed to consult or de- 
spised the consultation of the old planter. Besides 
much of their advice on intricate or doubtful questions 
was somewhat similar to a little gold specked over 
u quantity of quartz. A little discrimination would 
easily separate the gold from the quartz, while at the 
same time you could not obtain or procure the former 
without also accepting of the latter. Although the 
old planter was somewhat bigoted, as a rule he seldom 
gave out that his advice and opinions were all gold, 
and contained no quartz. ’ 
He would say : “ I have done so in a similar case. 
I have found such a course of action answer, and 
leave you to judge whether or not to do and act as 
