MISCELLANEOUS ADDRESSES. 
249 
ever enjoyed? Would it be safe to call upon any farmer here 
present, who is not a subscriber to his own local county paper, to 
signify it by uplifted hands ? And yet, my God! only think of 
it! The official and political duties of the county and different 
towns, the market reports, the current events of the week—even 
the marriages and deaths—all a dead blank! I do not know that 
there is a house in Dane county to which the remark would apply, 
but I have seen a farmer, owning a brass trimmed harness and 
riding in a silver mounted carriage, who never expended one hun¬ 
dred dollars for books in all his life. He would turn his stock 
into the richest clover field to graze, he would select the choicest 
grains for his animals in winter time, he would expend money 
freely for the physical comforts of those around him—for he was 
no miser—and yet this man’s family, consisting of eight inmates— 
sons and daughters—would be left, year in and year out, to browse 
upon the standard literature afforded by the annual almanac, a 
battered copy of the Holy Bible, and such transient newspapers 
as chanced to find their way into the house. This man never mis¬ 
trusted that he’ was not faithfully performing the duties of a 
father, and fulfilling the highest destiny of an American citizen. 
Just over the way was a neighbor, no wealthier than himself 
He had left a beautiful lawn in front of his house; at odd times 
he had planted ornamental trees: flowers'bloomed in his yard, on 
the walls of his dwelling he had placed some plain by fine engrav¬ 
ings. On his book shelves you would find copies of Addison, of 
Scott, of -Irving, of Shakspeare and the standard poets. You 
would find a few well selected histories and biographies, treatises 
upon agriculture, and some of the purest and best works of fiction. 
His mail was sure to bring him, not only his own local county 
paper, but at least once a week, one of the leading journals of the 
east and one of the west, together with the proper periodicals, for 
the instruction and refinement of his daughters. And yet, the 
whole had not cost him to exceed the sum of two hundred and 
fifty dollars, the 'price of one good likely colt! For this small sum, 
he had set up there, in his little bower of a home, a fountain of 
knowledge where his sons and daughters could go and drink as 
fully and freely as his sleek, well fed stock could quaff the crys¬ 
tal waters of the bubbling springs. If any of his children had 
