405 
4886 THE AURAL NEW-YORKER. 
&l)( IjfriXsmdn. 
FORESTER 2d. 
The fine Guernsey bull, Forester 2d, 21 E. G. 
H. B., is shown at Fig. 260. Regained second 
prize at the Bath and West of England Show 
in 1884, and in 1885 he was first at the Brigh¬ 
ton Show, and first at the Royal Show at 
Southampton. He is a son of Forester, a 
prize-winner in 1882 anil 1884; while his dam, 
Queen 268, was first at the Salisbury Show in 
1881. 
liitvnl Copies. 
i 
THE DARK SIDE OF FARMING. 
HENRY STEWART. 
A prisoner on the form; square pegs in round 
holes; success in (he man, not in the land ; 
a contrast; the bright and dark sides of 
fanning. _ 
There is said, by poets, to be a silver lining 
to every cloud; but the one who sees the cloud 
and uot the bright lining, perceives only the 
dark side of it, ominous of storm and tempest- 
It is so with the life of many a fanner. It is 
quite trae that while but one in ten of the 
professional men or merchants succeed in es¬ 
tablishing themselves permanently in business, 
but one out of ton farmers fails to make some 
sort of success. But what sort of success is it 
for a large proportion of those who stick? 
Like the life prisoner bound by an iron chain 
to the stone walls of his dun¬ 
geon, dark, dreary and hope¬ 
less, the fanner, bound by his 
penury to his farm, chafes 
and rebels against his equally 
strong bands, and remains, 
simply lieeau.se he cannot 
escape from them. All he 
owns is tied up in his farm. 
He cannot dispose of it, and 
is bound to it for life. Work¬ 
ing without hope and in dis¬ 
appointment, misery and 
wretchedness, he worries 
along, a slave to himself and 
to those who depend upon him 
for subsistence. No doubt 
this is the lot of many a farm¬ 
er who has lost heart in his 
work, who has no sunshine to 
cheer him, but who exists 
always on the dark side of his 
life. 
It has been said by a quaint 
old writer, who saw through 
a good deal of human nature, 
that human life represents a 
board with a number of round 
holes in it, and men are like 
square pegs trying to fit them¬ 
selves into those holes. How- 
true this is. How hai*d for a 
man to find his true place; 
how he frets and worries in 
his efforts to find it; how many 
never tind it, but go mourn¬ 
fully and despairingly from one hole to 
another, but never find one to fit until tho 
unhappy luau drops into his last hole and 
is covered up out of sight, finding at last, 
let us hope, in some better life a better-fitting 
occupation and tho rest which always evaded 
him here. And farmers are like other men, 
and have all their weak points and fail¬ 
ings, and therefore necessarily come to the 
same end in their enterprises; but as a farm 
provides a home and at least a living, and 
cannot be abandoned easily, the farmer 
sticks to it and pines and frets at his lot from 
which he cannot escape, but in which he 
makes but a sorry attempt to live in the true 
sense of the word. 
A common adage has it that “it is through 
the man and not in the farm” that success or 
failure is made. The same idea is given by 
Shakespeare iu his lines, 
Mcu at some times are masters of their fates. 
The fault, dear llrmus, la uot lu our stare, 
“Hut In ourselves, that we are umlerlluKS.” 
A successful farmer is often next neighbor 
to one who never sees the bright side of his 
work or life. The tine enjoys every comfort 
and many luxuries drawn from the farm. All 
his environments bespeak contentment and 
abundance. His air is that of a man satisfied 
with himself and what he has. The other 
shows by his actions and words that lie is dis¬ 
contented; his home is cheerless and squalid; 
his fences are mean; his crops are poor; his 
stock is wretched; ho and his family are care¬ 
worn and dispirited; he is the victim of all 
sorts of accidents, and ho is always complain¬ 
ing of his had luck. And yet the farms ad¬ 
join ; the soils are alike; the same sun shines 
for both; the same beneticient showers and 
dew-s’fall upon each; yet one has all the bright 
side, and the other the dark side of life and 
work. The two men alone differ; one works 
perhaps no harder, and rarely as hard as the 
other, for it is not work or labor alone that 
avails—it is how the work is done, and the qual¬ 
ity and character of it, that give it value and 
effect. Mere force brings a man to the level 
of his ox or his mule; it is reason, intelligence, 
thought; in a word, brains, that raise human 
labor above brute force, and give effect to it. 
It is thus that farm work needs to be done to 
be successful, to be lifted up above drudgery, 
to rise above mere labor, to become pleasant, 
attractive, alluring and profitable; and then 
the farmer, although the cloud of depression 
in business may hover over him, stands on that 
side of it which reflects the bright golden rays 
of hope, and the silver lining of satisfied aud 
intelligent effort and conscientious, careful 
work, and the cloud is not dark, nor are there 
any low mutterings of disaster coming from it. 
But the unfortunate man on the other side of 
it sees only the darkness; and no cheering 
gleam comes from it to encourage him to hope 
that when the cloud has passed over, the bright 
sun will shine upon him, for this man sees only 
the dark side of farming. 
MTthin the'past week' wejiave noticed*Jex- 
posures of four cases in which people in widely 
J separated sections were swindled by sharpers 
acting us canvassers for papers or magazines. 
In all eases women were mostly the victims; 
and in all cases subscriptions were taken at 
greatly reduced rates. Generally the fellow 
pretended to be a relative of some well known 
lx>ok and paper dealer, and sometimes produc¬ 
ed a forged “authority"’ to make collections. 
There are a large number of honest, respecta¬ 
ble men who act as canvassers for peritxlieals, 
aud it isn’t at. all wonderful that a few rascals 
should embark in the business; but caution is 
needed on the part of the subscriber. 
Farmers and Country Mkiichaktb in Trovbi.k.—A s¬ 
sistance given to those financially embarrassed, on the 
.most fnvorahlee terms; it Is worth your while to write 
us In confidence. Brown, Smith A Co,, Hrokers, Clark 
Street, Chicago. 
Have you ever seen an advertisement of that 
sort? Of course, the form maybe different; 
but have you seen one the gist of which was 
the same? If uot, you haven’t paid much at¬ 
tention to advertisements in all sorts of papers, 
even in those of the religious kind. A smart 
crook con get such an advertisement as the 
above iu 1,000 country papers for 850, through 
au advertising agency. Have you any idea of 
the number of -‘farmers and country mer¬ 
chants” “financially embarrassed”? Well, on 
a moderate estimate, 2,000 applications would 
come through those 1,000 advertisements. Now, 
there are two ways of “working the game,” 
and the Eye-Opener’s notes contain several in¬ 
stances of each. In one case the crook wrote 
to each applicant, in confidence, thut he had 
by bribery secured wax impressions of the gen¬ 
uine greenback 85 plates, and was prepared to 
supply ?5 bills in auy quantity at 25 cents on 
the dollar, to those who would’assertkm [honor 
that they.wero in absolute need [of money to 
tide over a present financial distress. The 
price to all others would be 50 cents on the 
dollar, and not over 81.000 worth would be sold 
to any one person. Of course, there were many 
injunctions as to secrecy, etc; many assurances 
that the bills could not possibly be distin¬ 
guished from genuine greenbacks, etc. Did 
the “financially embarrassed” bite at the bait? 
Certainly a considerable percentage did, and 
in consequence become more “financially em¬ 
barrassed" by the amount the crook swindled 
them out of liy the old “sawdust game.” In 
the other case negotiations were opened for 
loans on very favorable terms—about as fav¬ 
orable as those offered by that Cineinati four- 
per-cent-loan humbug—but in all cases a pre¬ 
liminary deposit of 85 to 820 was indespensa- 
ble “to pay for investigation,”etc., and as the 
securing of this was the only object of the 
swindler, he at one stopped correspondence 
when he got it. m 
The “Montreal Sanitary and Plumbing As¬ 
sociation” is a swindle that came to grief early 
the other day; but no doubt the same or sim¬ 
ilar swindles will turn up in other places on 
both sides of the line. Geo. R. Watson. Secre¬ 
tary-Treasurer, lately rented an office, and 
issued a prospectus setting forth that the prin¬ 
cipal object of the Association was to examine 
report and execute all drainage and plumber 
work for members’ houses for a yearly sub¬ 
scription of 816 each. It also offered to ana¬ 
lyze well and other water to see if it was fit 
for drinking purposes, for 85 per analyris. 
The names of prominent citizens, including 
that of the mayor, were freely given, without 
the slightest authority, as references, and the 
Bank of Montreal was mentioned as the bank 
of the Association. Of course, there were lots 
of gudgeons ready to jump at the glittering 
bait. Ton-dollar subscriptions began to pour 
in quite lively from simple people who ex- 
pected 8100 worth of work for their X. 
Agents were wanted for so driving a business 
at a salary of 8600per annum and commission; 
but, of course, a deposit of from 8100 to 8200 
apiece was indispensable. How many such 
deposits the Secretary-Treasurer received is 
not known; but the evening he “lit out,” one 
would-be agent called to deposit 8100, aud au- 
other to get rid of 8200. The fellow had paid 
some of his debts with bogus checks, was 
arrested by one creditor, surrendered enough 
to pay that particular debt, and at once left 
the city. 
The New York Medical Society has de¬ 
nounced the protended Indian doctors or 
“medicine men,’’who, during the last few Sum¬ 
mers have multiplied greatly throughout the 
country. These charlatans travel from place 
to place, setting Up an imitation Indian camp in 
each. They draw crowds by a crude variety 
show, singing, dancing aud athletic feats. The 
medicines they offer for sale are composed of a 
stew of herbs made iu a ket t le over a fire in 
presence of the gaping spectators. The better 
to bamboozle the ignorant and superstitious, 
they frequently accompany the manufacture 
with a farrago of savage incantations, quasi¬ 
mystic rights and hideous contortions. 
Through wholesome fear of arrest, the rascals 
are generally careful not to call themselves 
physicians, but they do call themselves “med¬ 
icine men,” and are, in the opinion of the 
Medical Society, medical praoticionors in the 
eye of the law, and should therefore be sup- 1 
pressed by the authorities. Most of them ' 
have little or no medical skill, though a broken- 
down, disreputable physician with a diploma, 
is sometimes to be met with among them. 
Their “cure-alls” seldom do any mere good 
than bread pills; but the rogues are generally 
too cautious to employ any ingredient which 
would do harm. The nostrum is generally a 
simple cathartic, no more suitable to any par¬ 
ticular disease than purgatives generally are. 
Over a dozen such “outfits” have started from 
this city. The most elaborate of them had its 
headquarters in a disreputable “dive” at 
Chatham Square. The leader is a big, swarthy, 
long-haired, glib-tongued fellow named Do- 
adens, alias “The Pawnee.” He traveled last 
year as the “Big Wonder.” and found so many 
dupes (“chumps” he calks them) that this season 
he extended the outfit so as to embrace five 
young women for Indian dances; an ugly old 
hag for a witch and fortune-teller: two male 
athletes for acrobatic feats, and two comic 
vocalists. All the women and most of tire men 
are stained to pass as Indians, and there are 
also several genuine Indians from Canada or 
Western New York to sell bead-work and 
baskets. A three-card monte swindler will 
also be with the crowd, the “privilege” being 
worth 850 a week, as the profits are likely to 
be over 8100. The whole party are quite 
vicious and disreputable. This is a sample of 
the other “outfits” in this line. Of course, no 
sensible man, woman or child will patronize 
the rascals, but, alas! no other crop in some 
places is so abundant as that of fools, 
and this crop swindlers harvest the year round. 
Look out for the lightning rod sharks. The 
Eye-Opener has a number of notes of their 
swindles upon farmers in different parts of the 
country, especially in the 
Prairie States. A very active 
gang has lately been operat¬ 
ing in Northern Illinois. An¬ 
other has been swindling 
farmers in Central Iowa; and 
two others have been busily 
operating in Missouri. Some 
have crossed the Ohio also, 
and are working iu Kentucky; 
while milder reports of other 
swindling gangs come to us 
from'several other States. A 
great deal of hot indignation 
is felt against them wherever 
they have operated; but they 
care as little for the feelings 
of their victims as do the pick¬ 
pockets and burglars for sen¬ 
timents of the people they 
have preyed upon. Like the 
ruck of the criminal classes, 
these fellows have very little 
inventive ingenuity; and the 
mode of swindling practiced 
by them in one part of the 
country or in one year is the 
same as that practiced by 
similar vagabonds in another 
part of the country or an¬ 
other year. They generally 
get a fanner to sign what 
he supposes to be a contract, 
but often it is a note, which 
soon goes into the hands 
of “innocent holders.” and so 
must be paid. “Innocent” is often used instead 
of "idiot.” In the combination “innocent hold, 
ers of swindling paper, if the word cannot 
he used in this sense, it should generallv 
have a iueaniug like that of “fence,” indicat¬ 
ing a sleek, hypocritical rascal ever ready, 
for a large margin of profit, to enable thieves 
and swindlers to realize on the results of their 
dishonest operations. Often the lightning 
red sharpers, instead of getting a negoti¬ 
able note, merely obtain a contract for 
three or four or more times the 
quantity of goods the signer thinks he is 
ordering. A few days after the advance 
agent has secured the contract, the gang ap¬ 
pear in force, aud insist on putting up a much 
greater number of roils, or rods of a much 
more expensive kind, than the fanner wants. 
He objects more or less resolutely, but they 
point to the contract, and bluster. Generally 
the farmer submits; often he compromises; 
sometimes he lavs spunk, determination and 
force enough to drive them from his place. 
From the E.-O.’s notes, this would seem to be 
the best plan. The rascals, knowing they are 
in the wrong, usually play a bluff game; but 
w hen resolutely met, they at once lower their 
demands, or slink away like the paltroons 
they usually are 1 . It would be well for the 
farmers of every neighborhood to have a very 
distinct understanding among themselves as 
to the treatment to be accorded to all such dis¬ 
honest scamps. Few of them would have the 
hardihood to practice their rascalities among 
a community known to be resolute and united 
in their treatment of such pests, and, then, too, 
each victimized farmer, knowing that he 
would be backed up by the sympathy, whips, 
hoots and bull-dogs of his neighbors, would 
be less likely to submit to imposition. 
GUERNSEY BULL, FORESTER 2d. Fig. 260. Re-engraved from the London Live Stock Journal. 
