14 
SEE©-T!HE AMO HARVEST, 
Tlie Solid Content a Farmer Has. 
Farming is a slow way to make money, 
but then there is a law of compensation 
about everything in this life, and farming 
has its blessings that other pursuits do not 
have. The farmer belongs to nobody. He 
is the freest man upon earth and the most 
independent. He has more latitude and 
longitude. He has a house in the country 
with plenty of pure air and good water. If 
he makes but little in the field, he has oc¬ 
casion to spend but little. He can raise 
his own hogs, and sheep, and cattle, and 
chickens. His wood costs nothing, and 
luxury of big black-logs and blazing fires in 
open fire-places all winter long is some¬ 
thing that city people long for but cannot 
afford. My own farm cost me $7,000. I 
have 120 acres of open land in good con¬ 
dition. and it yields me on an average about 
five dollars an acre over all expenses. Say 
nine per cent upon the investment. Well 
that is very little, considering my own 
labor and supervision. I’ve seen the time 
when I made five times as much without 
any capital except my head. But then we 
have to keep a pair of horses to ride around 
and they have to be fed from the farm. 
There are liitle leaks all around, but still 
we are happier on the farm than we were 
in the town, and feel more secure from the 
ills of life. We fear no pestilence or dis¬ 
ease, no burglars or thieves. We lock no 
doors, and Mrs. Arp has quit looking under 
the bed for a man. I love to hear the churn- 
dasher splashing in the butter-milk. I love 
to hear the roosters crow and the peacock 
holler, and see the martins sailing round 
the martin gourds. I love to have a neigh¬ 
bor stop and chat about the growing crops. 
I love to take the children with me to the 
watermill and fish below the dam amid the 
roar of falling waters, or paddle around the 
pond in an old leaky bateau. I love to 
wander through the woods and glades, and 
wear old clothes, that get no older or 
dirtier, and get caught in a shower of rain 
if I want to. Old man Horace remarked 
about 2,000 years ago, that the town was 
the best place for a rich man to live in, and 
the country was the best place for a poor 
man to die ia, and inasmuch as riches were 
uncertain and death was sure, it becomes a 
prudent man to move to the country as 
soon as he can get there. Farmers have 
their ups and downs, of course, but they 
don’t collapse and burst up like tradesmen. 
They don’t go down under a panic .—Bill 
Arp , in Atlanta Constitution. 
The Liquor Traffic from a Busi¬ 
ness Standpoint. 
It is sometimes urged against prohibition 
that the liquor traffic is a great industry, 
and that to destroy it would be to throw 
many persons out of employment, and do 
great injury to a large moneyed interest. 
We admit that many persons are engaged 
in the manufacture and sale of strong 
drink, and that these persons, when pro¬ 
hibition prevails, will find, like Othello, 
their “occupation gone.” We will go far¬ 
ther and admit that many more find em¬ 
ployment in raising hops for beer, rye and 
corn for whisky, in t^e construction of 
breweries and saloons, in the manufacture 
of beer wagons, barrels, kegs and glasses. 
Even this is not all. As intemperance pro¬ 
duces so much pauperism and crime, many 
find occupation in building jails, prisons, 
poor houses, asylums, etc., the demand for 
which this traffic has made. As rum drink¬ 
ing produces an immense amount of disease 
and many deaths, it gives employment to 
doctors, grave-diggers, undertakers, etc. 
Besides it necessitates more policemen and 
magistrates, and gives endless employment 
to the officers and courts of justice. Ought 
not such a good business be encouraged ? 
Let us have more saloons, more breweries 
and distilleries, and then, of course, more 
prisons, jails, poor-houses, hospitals, po¬ 
licemen, etc. 
During the war many persons found em¬ 
ployment in casting cannon, making gun¬ 
powder, lint, bayonets and the various ne¬ 
cessities of warfare. Contractors grew 
rich. A great number of people made piles 
1 of money and became suddenly wealthy. 
Was the war therefore a blessing? Should 
it have been fostered as a great industrial 
and moneyed interest? 
Even in a pestilence some find employ¬ 
ment and profit. We might just as well 
