466 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 21 
“THE HONEST FARMER.” 
A Few Cog:ltatIons. 
In quite a number of respects, “Gold 
Tiug Farmer,” page 402, is right. The 
farmer is usually regarded by city peo¬ 
ple about as an honest old plug horse, 
fit only to toil and moil from morn till 
night, fit companion for sheep, pigs and 
cattle; fit only to plow and sow, and 
reap and mow, and be a simple farmer, 
lie is spoken of in stories and novels as 
“an honest old farmer,” conveying the 
impression that he is a dear, clumsy old 
plug ; and he is used to represent raw, 
good-natured simplicity. The leading 
magazines rarely acknowledge his exist¬ 
ence. Editors of leading political jour¬ 
nals scarcely mention him, except in de¬ 
rision. Stories, tales and novels have 
soldiers, painters, actors, lawyers, doc¬ 
tors, merchants, ministers, pirates and 
politicians for heroes and villains, but 
never a farmer. Apparently, he is the 
mudsill of creation. He isn’t at the 
front, but a little behind the tail-end of 
the procession. Why is he there ? Sim¬ 
ply because he’s too busy grubbing and 
digging and scratching for dimes, to 
come forward and assert himself. He’s 
a hewer of wood and drawer of water 
for people who dwell in towns. The 
rattle of his wagon is heard on the road 
leading to the town while the lark is yet 
dreaming. He is hastening to serve his 
patrons with the best of his products, 
even before he serves himself. When 
the sun is glowing in mid-heaven, he 
eats his meal of potatoes, pork and cab¬ 
bage, and is off again to his drudging. 
Seek for him in the gloaming of the 
evening and you’ll find him moiling 
about his barns, stock pens or vegetable 
patch. All this for dimes. 
As I said, he is a hewer of wood and 
drawer of water for the people who live 
in towns. .Some of them buy his prod¬ 
ucts and sell them elsewhere. Others 
sell him goods they have purchased else¬ 
where, and out of the profits derived 
from this traffic they live better than he 
does, dress better, have nicer homes and 
more comfortable surroundings, build 
fine stores, churches and schoolhouses, 
and employ ministers, teachers and serv¬ 
ants at good salaries, take about all the 
offices and make and administer the 
laws. And the farmer pays the bills ! 
He does this by selling about all he has 
to sell to first hands at the first, or low¬ 
est, prices, and buying whatever he 
needs from last hands—that is from the 
retailer, after the manufacturer, jobber 
and carrier have each added all of their 
expenses, and as much profit as the arti¬ 
cles will bear, to their cost. 
A SHORT ti'T ^ ago some of the leading 
manufact^:’’ -. ' f canned goods met to 
consider r"f*crs connected with their 
business. One of the questions discussed 
was: “Under what circumstances should 
a manufacturer soil direct to retailers ? ” 
Some were of the opinion that it would 
be proper to sell to the great department 
stores because they took such large quan¬ 
tities, but the majority were decidedly op¬ 
posed to it. One leading manufacturer 
declared emphatically that he would 
not sell to a retailer, even if he took 
10,000 cases a year. He would compel 
them to stick to the legitimate lines of 
trade and patronize the jobbers. After 
some argument it was decided that man¬ 
ufacturers should not sell direct to re¬ 
tailers under any circumstances, but 
compel them to patronize the jobbers 
and obtain the goods through them. 
And thus do the parasites aid each other 
in levying tribute on “the consumer, 
while at the same time they hold the 
producer—the man who performs all the 
luird labor and runs all the risks of in¬ 
clement seasons—under proper subjec¬ 
tion by “ fixing” prices for him. 
Said a farmer a few days ago: “If 
the farmers would hang together as the 
coal miners do, we could force the price 
of wheat up to $1 a bushel in two months. 
But, shucks, you couldn’t get two dozens 
of them to hang together three days, 
unless it was to fight some two-for-a- 
nickel matter like a proposition to pay 
road taxes in money instead of alleged 
labor ! The miners tear up things and 
destroy property, the sheriffs swear in 
all the idle loafers in the locality that 
‘vote right’ as deputies, at $2 per day, 
and after the uproar is over the moguls 
levy a tax on all the farms and stock in 
the county to raise money to pay the 
bill! Bless you, who is the farmer, that 
he should howl ? ” 
And finally : Such of our town cousins 
as have made enough profit by trading 
with us to warrant it, are now, or soon 
will be, off for a summer outing “where 
the fields are green and the skies are 
blue.” And three times out of five that 
means at Uncle Bill’s or Aunt Maggie’s 
farm. And Uncle Bill and his wife and 
Aunt Maggie and her husband will toil 
and moil a little earlier and a little later, 
and put themselves to a little more ex¬ 
pense and trouble to provide food and 
enjoyment for their guests. Of course. 
Uncle Bill’s wife doesn’t need any out¬ 
ing ; she’s out half the time anyway, 
taking care of the poultry and garden 
and calves. And Aunt Maggie’s husband 
doesn’t particularly need any rest at this 
time of the year. He can rest in winter 
when the weather’s bad 1 A farmer of 
my acquaintance received a letter from a 
merchant nephew, who lives in a city 
about 75 miles distant, saying that his 
wife and two children were almost dying 
for want of a little country air and re¬ 
creation, and if it would not inconven¬ 
ience him too much, he would like to 
send them to his farm for a few days. 
He could run out himself to see them oc¬ 
casionally, but he was tied down to busi¬ 
ness so closely that he could not stay 
more than a day at a time. The uncle 
interpreted the letter to his wife thusly : 
“ All of wife’s lady friends that can 
afford it are going sc mewhere for an out¬ 
ing, and to keep in the swim she and the 
children must go, too. I am not able to 
send them to a fashionable summer re¬ 
sort, so I’ve decided, with your kind per 
mission, to send them to visit you six or 
eight weeks, to have a real nice outing 
at your expense.” 
Then he sat down and wickedly wrote: 
“ All right. Send ’em along. Business 
is rushing just now, but I guess we can 
take care of ’em a few weeks at $15 per 
week! ” 
They didn’t come. 
And one word more: The city man 
who chips in his dollar to send a child of 
the lower million out to the country a 
month thinks he has done a real benevo¬ 
lent and kindly thing—in fact, his whole 
duty. He has given one of the dollars 
he made in buying from the producer 
and selling to the consumer to send a 
sickly child to a farmer, for him to feed 
and care for a month at an actual cost 
of $10 or more, to say nothing about the 
extra work involved. We have read sev¬ 
eral of the pretty, pathetic stories about 
the poor little Fresh Air child and the 
good old farmer, and we’ve had the real 
Fresh Air child. And all the pathos 
faded into invisible thinness when we 
found its golden tresses inhabited, and 
heard it utter swear words in a foreign 
tongue. We beg to be excused from car¬ 
ing for any more. fkkd grundy. 
Christian County, Ill. 
The Sheep in War. —The New York 
Sun gives us this Fourth of July Story : 
“Biitish fondness for good eating, and 
especially mutton, on more than one 
occasion has cost England a good deal 
more than she bargained for. Eighty- 
one years ago to-day it cost her a sloop- 
of-war. It has been seriously charged, 
and with some grains of truth, that dur¬ 
ing the war of 1812, British naval officers 
stationed on the coast of the United 
States kept a sharper lookout for Yankee 
poultry, sheep, and good things of the 
larder than they did for Yankee cruisers. 
The Americans were not long in discov¬ 
ering this weak point of their enemy, 
and on .July 4, 1813, a party of Connec¬ 
ticut fishermen planned the capture of 
the British sloop-of-war Eagle, which 
was cruising in Long Island Sound. The 
“grand strategy of war” on this occa¬ 
sion was based on the well-known fond¬ 
ness of British naval officers for mutton. 
The fishing smack, Yankee, was fitted 
out in New York harbor early on the 
morning of July 4, having 40 well-armed 
men concealed in her hold, while three 
innocent-looking fishermen, together 
with a calf, a sheep and a goose were 
purposely left on deck in plain sight. 
Working her way through Hell Gate, the 
Yankee entered the Sound, to all appear¬ 
ances a harmless trading vessel. It was 
not long before the sharp-eyed lookout 
in the Eagle espied the calf, although 
her commander always claimed that he 
was the first to see the sheep. However 
this may be, away the Eagle went about 
in full chase. The innocentlooking 
fishermen affected to make great efforts 
to escape, but promptly heaved-to when 
the order was given to do so. The Eagle 
gallantly ran alongside, the eyes of her 
people sparkling and their mouths 
watering at the sight of the calf, the 
sheep, and the goose. But at this mo¬ 
ment the watchword “Lawrence” was 
passed, and in an instant, 40 Americans 
rose to their feet, and, taking deliberate 
aim, fired, killing and wounding a num¬ 
ber of the English crew and driving the 
rest below. The Americans then boarded 
the Eagle and, hoisting the Stars and 
Stripes over the British colors, carried 
her safely into New York, where they 
were greeted with great enthusiasm by 
the people who were celebrating the 
Glorious P’ourth on the Battery.” 
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