_—— i
~ dislike you.
Bellefonte, Pa., April 25, 1890.
. THE COUNTRY WOMAN.
Before the blacksmith shop she waits,
In her high country wagon sitting,
‘While the good smith with friendly haste
Her horse’s clumsy shoe is fitting.
He pares and measures, stirs his fire;
Saar blows ring out with shrillness
Into the August afternoon,
Steeped in its dreamy twilight stillness.
With anxious eyes she watches him
Her busy thoughts are homeward straying,
Shadows grow long o’er field and road,
And weary farmers leave their haying.
High in the elm tree o’er the way,
On sunlit boughs the birds are singing
Their cradle songs above their nest,
Within the whispering sweetness swinging.
She knows at home the patient cows
Stand lowing at the bars to greet her,
And anxious goodman scans the road
And sends the children out to;meet her.
She knows the supper fire is lit, :
The hearth swept clean, the kettle singing,
The kitchen table cleared to hold ;
The things from town that she is bringing.
And smiles in honest, rustic pride, :
At shrewd, hard bargains she’s been making
Of snowy eggs and creamy cheese,
For cloth,and shoes, and “things for bakin’.
The setting sun lights up her face,
Turning its harshness into beauty—
Picture ti peace and pride,
Of homely happiness and duty.
— Boston Transcript.
I————————s
ROSINE’S ROMANCE.
When Miss Magnolia carefully with"
drew the dress from the great cedar
trunk, unpinned the old damask table-
cloth which enveloped it and spread
out its shining folds for the admiration
of her niece, Rosine, that young lady
clasped her pretty hands and quoted
Keats:
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever!”
she said.
Miss Magnolia nodded and smiled.
She was small and round and brown as
a maiden lady of decidedly certain age
could be, But her heart, which had
been full of sentiment once, was a
warm and sensitive organ still, And
she took a deal of interest in Rosine’s
romance.
“Yes, my dear, it is a thing of beau.
ty! And to think I never wore it but
twice. Dear, dear”
“You had a lover then, auntie?”
asked Rosine.
“Yes, yes. That was one of the
dresses I got for my marriage. But he
went away—on business, he said. And
he never came back. It is just the
gown for your fancy dress ball,” hur-
ried on Miss Magnolia. “A trifle short,
of course, but there is quite a piece
turned in at the top that you could let
down. You shall go as a lady of long
ago.’
“Not so very long ago,” protested
Rosine, with a laugh. “But] really,
auntie, I don’t like to take it. It is
too lovely I”
“Not for a raiment of war! Remem-
ber, you are going to conquer the dra-
nl”
“That is so. And the master should
have written, ‘Thrice is she armed
who wears a pretty dress!”
The foe against whom Miss Rosine
Wilde purposed arraying herself was
the obdurate uncie of her handsome
lover. Most promply and perversely
had he opposed the marriage of his
nephew. The young fellow would have
ignored the refusal of his relative, were
it not that the old gentleman had al-
ways been kind and good to him ; had
indeed taken the place of his dead
father to him. So he decided that Re-
sine should meet his uncle and put his
prejudice to rout.
“He is coming to visit an old friend
of his,” Cyril had said—“Judge Char-
treau. .Yon know the Chartreau fam-
ily. 'Of course you have heard they are
going to give a fancy dress ball next
month in honor of the coming out of
their daughter, Lissette. You will re-
ceive a card. You will attend. You
will meet Uncle Albert. And you will
take his heart by storm.”
Hopefully had he planned his
scheme ; enthusiastically had he ex-
plained it. But Rosine protested. It
was to bea grand ball, and she had
nothing to wear. Besides, she did not
like the idea of plotting to make a per-
son like her. And—
“Bless you,” cried Cyrill, “he doesn’t
I don’t believe he even
knows your name. His resentment is
general, not particular. As soon as I
told him I was in love with a southern
girl he—he (I have to drop into slang,
osine)—he sat squarely down on me.
It sezms a southern girl jilted him
when he was young, and he is bound
to save me from a like awful fate. But
when once he sees you he is bound to
capitulate Heis a regular o'd brick
—Uncle Albert.”
“But I have nothing to wear. And
what 1s more, I can’t buy a dress for
the Chartreau ball. We—Aunt Mag-
nolia and I—are as poor as the prover-
bial church mice.”
But just then Miss Magnolia came to
Rosine’s relief like a regular little fairy
godmother.
“The very thing!” she cried—“my
primrose satin I”?
Rosine regarded her dubiously, de-
lightedly.
Jealously, she knew, had her aunt
always guarded her trunkful of treas-
ures, her jewels, her laces, her rich,
stiff, glistening old brocades.
“Do you mean it, auntie ?"’
Miss Magnolia's bright old
winked very rapidly indeed.
“I do, my dear! IT was young once
myself.” ‘
And that was how Rosine Wilde came
to be the belle of Madame Chartreau’s
fancy dress ball. The proposed festivi-
ty had been the talk of New Orleans for
several weeks, The night long antici-
pated was cool, crisp, sweet and pearly.
Brilliantly lighted was the broad balco-
nied old residence on St. Charles street.
Many a carriage rolled upand rolled off.
When Rosine descended from the ba-
rouche of her chaperon she felt a little |
nervous, a little elated and conscious
that she was looking uncommonly well
eyes
——., a
—as indeed she was. Quite a picture
was the pretty young figure, in the
clinging gown of pale yellowish satin,
pieturesquely pufted and quaintly fash-
ioned. The corsage, cut roundly, re-
vealed the firm. full throat. Dainty
mouse skin swathed the arms, which,
if slender, were also exquisitely round-
ed. And the small, oltve tinted face
was lit toloveliness by pansy black eyes.
A flash of adoration succeeded the se-
rene nonchalance of Cyrill Rodney’s
countenance as he caught sight of her.
He made his way to her side.
“Queen Rosine” he murmared. “I
wonder if you know that you're by far
the prettiest girl here to-night! Poor
Uncle Albert! How complete will be
his surrender !”’ ’
She swept him a mocking courtesy.
“Ah,” said she, smilingly, “if that
conviction were but mine”’—
Tbe sentence ended in a long, soft
sigh.
“Si te pas gagne’’—he began. “Can-
found it, I never can get my tongue
around your creclism! The saying is,
however, that if there was no sighing
in the worid the world would stifle.
Now, prepare to face the music!”
And off’ he went. He soon returned.
By his side was a sturdy old gentleman.
Rosine’s heart beat more rapidly.
“The dragon !"’ she said.
Silver hair had the dragon. A dark
mustache had the dragon. A florid
complexion had the dragon. And a
manner that was grave, dignified,
courteous.
“Uncle Albert,” explained Cyril,
with boyish eagerness, ‘this is Miss
Rosine Wilde.” \
“Wilde!” The old gentleman started
perceptibly. He looked at the blush-
ing girl—at the yellowish gown. He
bowed.
%And,” avowed young Rodney, send-
ing his sweetheart a swift smile of en-
couragement, ‘“‘and—the young lady of
whom I spoke to you.”
“Oh 1” exclaimed Albert Ellsworth.
Theninterrogatively : “Wilde? Was
your father’s name Clayton Wilde ?’¢
Rosine assented.
“And your mocher’s maiden name
was Magnolia Kingsley ?
“Oh, dear, no! Aunt Magnolia was
never married. My mother's name
was Madelina Kingsley.
“Th ?” cried the dragon.
The florid color had faded from his
cheeks. He was tugging nervously at
his dark mustache, He looked agita-
ted, perplexed.
“My mother died ten years ago,”
said Rosine, * and since then I have
lived with Aunt Magnolia.”
Mer. Ellsworth regarded her grimly.
“Is that,” he asked abruptly, “your
aunt’s gown you haye on ?”’ :
The soft rose fire in the girl’s cheek
deepened.
“How in the world did you know ?"”
she counter questioned.
A queer, wavering smile was hisonly
reply.
A constrained silence unsued. Cyril
gave his uncle an-astonished glance.
“So Magnolia is an old maid?” said
Mr. Ellsworth, abruptly.
“If she is,” cried Rosine, stung to de-
femse by a remark she chanced to con-
sider rude, “it is because she was true
to a lover who proved unworthy of
her!”
“Eh!” ejaculated Mr. Ellsworth,
more sharply than before. And sud-
denly he turned and walked away.
The following day tie insisted on ac-
companying his nephew to the gaunt,
ramshackle, once aristocratic old home
in the French quarter, where dwelt Ro-
sine. As they were passing the vault-
ed entrance to the little flagged court-
yard, Albert Ellsworth caught sight of
a familiar figure moving among the
potted palms and boxes of blooms,
“Goon, lad!” he had said to Cyril.
He had paused, and was looking
through the brief avenue of gloom to
the brightness beyond.
Cyril was about to question this new
vagary, when the thought of a peculiar
poss bility made him catch his breath
and do as bidden. He knocked at the
barred back door, and was admitted to
Rosine’s radiant presence. And mean-
while his uncle went into the court
yard. The little old lady standing by
the banana tree looked up at the sound
of the step on the stones.
“Magnolia I" he cried.
Miss Magnolia gazed at him in a
-dazed, half frightened kind of way. Did
ghosts ever appear in the daytime?
Stouter than he whom she had known,
and with hair grown gray. But the
same. Around her, in a fantastic dance,
the broken fountain, the long leaved
banana tree and the giant oleanders
went whirling. She didn’t faint, but
she came nearer to it than she ever
had come in her life,
“Did you think I had deserted you,
Magnolia? When I left you to go
north on business I helieved in you as
I've never believed in any one since.
And while away I heard and read that
you bad married that young Wilde I
used to be so jealous of. So I went to
Europe. And I stayed there.”
“But Clayton Wilde married Made-
fins, I always told you he came to see
er,’
“Yes, I know that—now. I was a
fool to have been so easily convinced of
your falsity. You haven't changed a
bit. I knew you the moment I saw
you,” -
Miss Magnolia smiled delightedly.
She did not know he had expected
to sec her.
“I never forgot the dress you wore
the last time I saw vou,” declared Mr.
Ellsworth, waxing fervent. “I recog-
nized it on your niece last night.”
“Last night! Are you—surely you
are not the dragon !”’
“What-at?”
“The—the dragon!” faltered Miss
Magnolia.
Mr. Ellsworth looked blank.
“That,” murmured the little lady,
feeling she was in for it, and might as
well make a clean breast, “was what |
Rosine and I called Cyril's uncle. And
Rosine was going to conquer him.”
He burst out laughing.
“Well, she did. The boy shall mar-
ry Madeline's pretty daughter. And
you, Magnolia—you’ll marry me!”
wid a...
“Oh, dear, no! I'm too old.”
“Not a day.”
“And ugly—now |”
“Loveliest woman in the world to
me,” insisted the dragon, loyally.
“Bless you, my children!” cried a
voice from above.
The pair in the coutyard glanced up.
On one of the inner balconies stood
Rosine and Cyril.
“Vanish, you scamps!” roared the
dragon.
“I shan’t allow you to marry a south-
era girl, sir!” shouted back Cyril, as he
and Rosine beat a brisk retreat.
Laughing and breathless they faced
each other in the old drawing room.
“Everything is lovely, sweetheart!”
cried Cyril, in an ecstasy.
Relief for the Farmer,
So much is being said through the
press and otherwise of the depressed con-
dition of agriculture and its causes that
one can scarcely take up a paper with-
out finding something on the subject ;
but itis nearly always the same wail
with a partisan reason. It was the
same under the Cleveland administration
that we find under the Harrison regime.
‘With these partisan papers it is all tar-
iff to the exclusion of other non-partisan
reasons, so that it is hard to reach the
farmer and direct his attention to other
causes. I will not dispute for a moment
thatan import duty gives the opportu-
nity for higher prices for that which is
for sale in our country and so does free
trade lower the prices; if this were not
so the business industries would not con-
cern themselves as to what would be the
policy of the Government on this ques-
tion. The farming industry is alike 1n-
terested because of fluctuations. If our
Government puts woolen manufactures
on the free list prices will go down, as
these goods can be bought cheaper in
foreign markets ; just so if wool is put
on the free list it will be lower in price,
as it can be bought cheaper abroad.
But the Government needs revenues,
There is now over $160,000,000 collect-
ed on import duties. If we abolish
these duties then we must collect this
amount by a direct internal revenue
tax the same as we now do upon
the tobacco growers. There are good
people on both sides of this ques-
tion, and we will have tariff and free
trade discussion for the next hundred
years; but in all justice, what is done
for other industries should be done for
farmers, and I sincerely believe will be
done if they unitedly ask and use their
influence as other classes do,
But let us look beyond th tariff and
see what else can be done to better the
condition of the farmer.
Recently in company with a number
of gentlemen of public influence the
conversation turned upon this subject,
and I was asked to outline what in my
judgment would relieve and better the
present condition of the agricultural
class, as IT had no doubt given the sub-
ject much thought and from my posi-
tion must be familiar with the condi-
tion and feelings of farmers.
1. Isaid in reply(and what I believe
to be true)that the present depressed
condition of agriculture is not owing to
any one cause—nor would any one
course help them out—but a c¢qombina-
tion of causes and circumstances. I
said revise the tax laws of our State as
proposed by the State Grange and you
will save upwards of $5,000,000 to the
farmers of Pennsylvania annually and
over $9,000,000 to all real estate owners
in town and country. Distribute these
$5,000,000 annually among farmers and
it will help them to the extent of their
school tax each.
2. Prevent the wholesale importa-
tion of diseased meats and adulterated
lards from the corn bins and slaughter
houses of the West and require all cattle
shipped from without the State to be in-
spected on hoof beforeslaugthering here,
and let the State in every way encour-
age the growing and feeding of cattle
on small farms by removing all taxes
and other burdens, so as to enable small
farmers to supply the local markets. If
you cannot prevent the importation of
“embalmed meat’’ put a high license on
the parties selling it. This is a contest of
our mh people with a great cattle syn-
dicate West that robs the farmer there
to uadersell our farmers here in the
wholesale market, while the retail prices
remain the same to the consumer.
3. Make the coinage of silver free,
then the people that get it coined will
be required to take it the same as gold.
This would advance the price of silver
to the gold standard in the markets of
the world, and place our export agricul-
tural products on an equality with those
of other countries. Asit is now, gold
being the standard of value, making
exchanges with foreign countries com-
pels the sale of our products in competi-
tion with the silver standard nations of
the world, thus placing Russian and In-
dia wheat into European markets lower
than we can, England making over 33
cents per bushel in making herexchange
with India as the difference between
gold and silver. Before silver was de-
monetized, from 1792 to 1873, the val-
ues were almost uniformly alike. Dur-
ing the war silver was even a trifle
higher.
4, Let Congress fix the volume of
currency per capita. In 1865 we had
$56 per capita., in 1839 we had only
$17. Perhaps $56 per capita was more
than the best interests of the country re-
quired ; but $17 per capita, which is
worse, is as much too low (Iam now
speaking from a farmer’s standpoint.
The best times the farmers ever had an
when they made the most money was
when we had $56 currency per capita,
and I am sure other industries were the
most prosperous, as everybody consumed
more by living better. Let Congress
fix the volume at not less than $40 per
capita, and set the mines anl mints to
work and the farmers will take the
money and pay their mortgages by the
increused price they will realize for their
progues and keep the mills at work by
uying farm machinery, cotton, wool-
en and silk fabrics ; should there not be
enough gold and silver to raise the vol-
ume of currency to $40 per capita, re-
fund interest bearing bonds for non-in-
terest bearing demand notes. To get
them out let the Government loan them
at one per cent. to the farmer on mort-
gaged security, the same as it now loans
bank currency to national banks. The
farmers can stand Senator Stanford’s
idea. They had better make him Secre-
tary of the Treasury and the farmers
Sou DL
pass his bill. Don’t be afraid that we
can’t get the money out.
5. Put the tariff down on what the
farmer buys and put it up on what he
raises (be selfish enough for self-preserva-
tion),that will make our wool, our hides,
our beans, our potatoes, our barley
higher, and put the duty up so high on
the beer that it can’t come here; we
don’t need foreign beer. ’
Now I have outlined to you far-
mers, as I did to those public gentlemen,
what would help farmers. I did not
take into consideration how it would
affect political parties,
‘Well, parties are after all what we
make them. If farmers have clean cut
ideas on public questions and go into
their political conventions and offer
their resolutions they will go into the
party platform and commit the party ;
then put men in nomination that will
| carry out your ideas. You have compe-
tent farmers enough to send to the Leg-
islature and to Congress to secure what
legislation you need. Don’t be afraid
of the man in your community that has
built up the Grange; being true to the
the Grange he will be true to your
interests, no matter how often you elect
him if he is the man to serve you best.
Cities and corporations keep men that
serve them best in the Legislature and
in Congress a lifetime.
Patrons must stand united in the in-
terests of their class if they wish to
bring about the same honorsand remu-
nerations that other classes acquire
through associated efforts. To be suc-
cesssul we must carry out our motto,
“In essentials, unity, and in non-essen-
tials, liberty.” Therefore, for the sake
of unity, we must give up detailed dif-
ferences so as to bring about general re-
sults in the interests of the agricultural
people. Fraternally,
LroNARD RHONE.
A Square Deal for Everybody.
To enable home and land-seekers to
visit the farming sections of Minnesota,
North Dakota, South Dakota and Mon-
tana, the Great Northern Railway Line
will sell excursion tickets, with stop over
privileges, good for thirty days, at One
Fare for the Round trip, on April 22d,
May 20th, September 20th, and Octo-
ber 14th, from St. Paul, Minneapolis,
Duluth and West Superior.
This will enable purchasers to see the
famous Park Region of Minnesota, the
wonderful Red Valley, Devil's Lake,
the Turtle Mountain, and the Mouse
River Regions of North Dakota; the
rich valleys of the Big Sioux and James
in South Dakota, and the vast fertile
districts watered by the Missouri, Milk,
Teton and Marias Rivers, in the great
Reservation of Montana; no land grant
restrictions or extra costs there in secur-
ing homesteads.
The Great Northein Railway runs
three lines through the Red River
Valley, is the only line to the Turtle
Mountains, has three lines in South
Dakota. and runs the only solid through
trains of Palace, Dinning and Sleeping
Cars, Modern Day Coaches and Free
Colonist Sleepers to Fergus Falls,
Moorhead, Fargo, Grand Forks, Crook-
stone, Devil’s Lake, Minot, Glasgow,
Chinook, Benton, Great Falls, Helena,
and Butte, Montana. It is the only
railway in the west owning and operat-
Ing its entire superior equipment, and
with solid roadway, 75-pound steel
track, insures satety, comfort and
speed.
Your home agent can sell you excur-
sion tickets to over 500 points on the
Great Northern Railway Line. Maps,
guide books or information concerning
travel or settlement along this line,
cheerfully furnished by any agent of the
Company, or F. I. Whitney, Gen. Pass.
Syne Agent, G. N. R’y, St. Paul,
inn.
Human Happiness.
It is Secured When Physical and
Mental Labor are Judiciously.
Mingled.
Work, either of the muscles or the
brain, is one of the condition ¢f human
happiness. Without it there can be no
wholesome enjoyment. The idle man
either seeks a substitute for the healthy
excitements of labor in vicious indul-
gence, or degenerates into a being only
a few degrees above the lower animals.
The truest life—that most accordant
with our nature—is one in which phys-
ical and mental labor are judiciously
mingled, alternating with such recrea-
tion as tends to refresh and renovate
both. Neither constant bodily toil nor
incessant study is advisable. When the
muscles are tired give them a recess and
do a little head-work. When both
head and hand are weary, try amuse-
ment—light reading of a wholesome
kind, a romp with your children, if
you have any, a social evening with a
friend—any thing, in fact, that may
properly be termed innocent relaxation.
This is rational life. TItis a sort of life
that may be warranted to wear well, and
it will not be clouded with fits of the
blues He who lives it will be younger
in feeling at three score than the man
whose career has been a gallop after ex-
citement, at thirty-five.
Ifyou belong to the working world,
and eat your bread in the sweat of your
brow, do not fancy that you have. there-
fore, no opportunity to enrich your
mind. Labor, thank Heaven, is not so
ill-paid in this country that the toiler
can not afford to throw down his tools.
now and then, and cultivate his
intellect. Two-thirds, at least of
our distinguished men have been farm
laborers and handicraftsmen. Very few
of them were “college bred.”” Our com.
mon schools impart all the instruction
necessary to enable their pupils, in after
life, to educate themselves thoroughly in
the higher brancher of knowledge.
‘With the foundation thus laid, what is
there that a persevering and ambitious
American can not teach himself ?
: Nothing, we believe, that the human
| mind is capable of mastering. Let it
| never be forgotten that our greatest
statesmen, discoverers, invertors, schol-
ars and artists have sprung from the
ranks of labor, not from the silk-stock-
ing cl asses.
——Mrs. Wickwire—¢Of course I
have my faults and failings, but you
should be the last man to find them
out.” Mr. Wickwire—"“Well, I sup-
pose I am but itis too late for the knowl-
edge to be of any use to me.”
Farm Slaves oi he United States.
Senator Voorhees Tells How the Tar-
iff Doesn't Prdect the Farmers,
and How Their Lands are Slip-
ping Away.
Senator Vorhees some time since in
the United States Senate, delivered an
address on the tariff, which should be
placed in the hands of every farmer in
the Union. The following are among
the strongest position taken by the In-
diana sage :
“Experience is teaching a harsh and
severe lesson to tke American farmer,
and the time will come, at no distant
day, when he will look upon the propo-
sition to tax him, his wife, and his zhil-
dren, for the protection and benefit of
other people besides himself and his own,
as he would look upon a law of Congress
establishing the arny worm, the weevil,
and the midga in 1is wheat, legalizing
locusts, lice, grasshoppers, and infecting
his cattle with nurrain and his hogs
with cholera. It is not possible that
the fraudulent and monstrous policy of
taxing the farmer into poverty in order
to make another class of people nabobs
and millionaires csn much longer de-
lude and mislead any one fit to manage
his own affairs and have the care of a
family.
From year to yeer the farmer has been
assured, and in certain quarters he is
now again being reminded, that protec-
tion is extended to the products of his
labor against the competition of similar
products imported from abroad for sale
in our markets. The protectionist who
advances this argument is either himself
a fool or an audacious knave, who as-
sumes that the farmers to whom it is ad-
dressed are fools. Do the home markets
of the United States invite the great
staples of agriculture from foreign
lands ? Does the price’of wheat, of corn,
of cotton, of pork and of beet in our
markets excite the cupidity of the grain
growers and stock raisers of Hurope,
Canada, Mexico, or South America ?
‘What need is there of a tariff duty to
keep the products of foreign farms away
from our shores,” when’ in point of fact
prices in American markets for agricul-
tural productions pay the American
farmer but little more than neighbor-
hood transportation, and nothing at all
for his labor.
The farmers of the United States sell
abroad and feed the world. Every pre-
tense of protection for their home mar-
kets is a fraud ; every duty laid on such
articles as wheat, corn, cattle, horses,
eggs, poultry, and other like produc-
tions of farm life and farm labor is a
cheat and a sham, and is so intended.
Under cover of a deceptive and pretend-
ed protection, which affords ro protec-
tion at all for anything he has to sell,
the farmer has been for years, and is
now compelled to pay taxes on the
necessaries of life after the following
average rates: On woolon goods, an
average of 70 per cent. ; knit cotton
goods, 89 per cent. ; cotton clotking, 85
per cent. ; cotton bagging, 44 per cent.;
cotton ties, 35 per cent.; tin plate for
roofing, milk pails and kitchen utensils,
40 per cent. ; earthen and stone ware,
58 per cent.; chains, 44 per cent.;
window glass, 78 per cent.; and sugar,
70 per cent.
To convince the farmer that he is pro-
tected and benefited by such an abomin-
able system as this, would seem to a ra-
tional mind utterly impossible, and yet
in some instamces it has been done. I
recall one instance at this time, and I
will venture to describe it to senators as
I have once before done to a popular as-
semblage.
1888, in one of our beautiful Indiana
towns, and in a very fertile belt of coun-
try, I witnessed a republican proces-
sion. Tt bad in it many industrial ex-
hibits, claiming to show the power and
the glory of a tariff laid for protection.
As I scanned the long line of moving
vehicles I caught sicht of one that rivet-
ed my gaze and gave me much food for
reflection on the power to mislead and
deceive which was abroad in the land.
It was a wagon driven by a farmer and
loaded with the productions of his field.
There were specimens of corn, wheat,
rye, hay and oats; of potatoes, pumkins,
watermelons and canteloupes; of cab-
bages, beans, onions, pie-plant and to-
matoes ; of apples, peaches, pears, grapes
and cultivated blackberries, and on each
side of the wagon in hig staring letters
I read the following: “These are the
fruits of protection.” My first thought
was that such a man would certainly
become the victim of a bunco steerer or
a confidence swindler before he got out
town, but in a moment I reflected that
he had been listening to the eloquent ad-
vocates of the monopolists, and had
been persuaded that tariff protection
had done more for him than the sun,
the dews, the rains and a rich and boun-
tiful soil, with all his own labor thrown
in.
The stupendous extent of this unfor-
tunate man’s delusion can only be esti-
mated when you turn away from a poli-
tical parade and look at him while at
work on his farm. You there behold
the poor, blind dupe breaking up his
grounds, preparing them for crops, and
then planting and drilling in his coin,
wheat, oats and rye with plows, harrows,
planters and dmlls on which he has
paid out of his own pocket from 75 to
100 per cent., nearly double their real
value, as a tariff tax laid for the protec-
tion and enrichment of the manufactur-
ers of such implements in this country.
You behold this enslaved end deluded
victirn of the money power cutting his
grain and hay with a reaper and
a mower for which he has paid twice
what they would cost him but for a pro-
tective tariff.
He used a double priced hoe in his
cabbage patch and a double-priced
pitchfork at his hay mow and wheat
stack, in order to enable the manufac-
turers of hoes and pitehforks to avoid for-
eign competition and thus get rich. He
then puts a set of harness on his horses,
taxed from the bridle bits to the breech
bands and on every buckle, link and
chain, hitches them to a wagon taxed
85 per cent., at least, on every bolt, spike
and tire that holds it together, and then
with « suit of clothes on his back taxed
at about the same rate, and with his
wife by his side, also covered with rai-
ment at two fold protected prices, he
starts to town shouting for the Republi-
can party, and the side-boards of his
wagon proclaiming that the productions
of his farm are the fruits of protection.
The fruits of protection! They were
During the campaign of |
planted, nurtured and gathered in spite
of protection, and aha double expense
because of such a ¢urse in the statute
books of the government. Itis a noto-
rious and self-evident truth that the tar-
iff; as it now stands, increases the far-
mer’s expense account from 35 to over
100 per cent, on every implement of hus-
bandry with which he toils from ore:
year’s end to another.
The Mills bill attempted to place all
fibers, such as hemp, jute, flax goods,
and manilla, used in the manufacture of:
twine on the free list. That just and
moderate bill was defeated by ghe mon-
opolists ; and now, with a tariff of $20 a
ton and 40 per cent. advalorem on twine,
and also a twine trust, creating a close
monopoly in its manufacture, thousands
of farmers during last summer’s harvest
were not able to pay the increased price
of binder’s twine. They have been forced
back to the machinery of their nak-
ed hand, and with bloody fingers and
thumbs they have reflected upon the
price of binding twine, enbanced to 18
cents a pound by tariff and by trust. It
is true that party prejudices are stub-
born and hard to remove, but surely it
is not too much to suppose that between
these same sore fingers and thumbs a
Republican ticket will not be found
this year.
The very house in which the farm-
er lives is a monument to unnecessary,
unjust, vicious, wickel and criminal
taxation. His barn is the same.
There is not an inch of lumber, or a
shingle nail, or a pane of glass in either
of them which has net cost the farm-
er an average tax of more than 50 per
cent., paid, not to the government,
but as a naked subsidy to the manu-
facturers of lumber, iron and glass.
His table, spread with his dishes and
with his daily food, is an altar reared to
taxation, on which he sacrifices three
times a day to the unholy god of mam-
mon now controlling the councils of
the nation and devouring the enforced
offerings of unpaid labor. His bed is
not a place of untroubled rest; it is
lined and stitched and quilted with
dishonest taxes, which he is compelled
to pay before he can draw his blanket
over his weary frame and sinks down
to sleep.
But in discussing the effects of .a high
protective tariff on the farmer, and on
his struggles for a prosperous home,
there remains for consideration another
page of startling statistics and agricul-
tural disasters. In high-sounding phrase
and with the swelling note of a bugle
proclaiming victory in advance, the ad-
vocates, the orators and the essayists of
protection are constantly boasting of
the growth and development of the
country, and citing its wealth as an
evidence that their policy is sound and
just. But is it true that there has been
a healthy development of the true in-
terests of the American people, and an
honest, beneficial accumulation of
wealth in this country under our pres-
ent financial policy, and more especially
by virtue of the present system of
tariff taxation ? The prosperity of huge
corporations, the accumulation of vast
fortunes in the hands of the few, the
swollen bank accounts of trusts, syndi-
cates and protected manufacturers, are
no more evidences of a people’s whole-
some growth and greatness than were
the riches of Dives when he refused a
crumb of bread to Lazarus, nor the ill-
gotten possessions of the Scribes and
Pharisees who devoured widow's houses
and made long prayers in the days of
our blessed Savior on earth. The only
genuine strength, progress and glory
of a nation must arise from the increas-
ing value of its agricultural lands, and
inthe yearly incomes and substantial
gains of its laboring people, thereby, as
a consequence, securing their content-
ment and their happiness.”
Wild Fowl in Norton Sound,
From the Sitka Alaskan.
Until the acquisition of Alaska by
the United States it was a matter of
wonder where certain wild fowl went
when they migrated from temperate
climes on the approach of summer, as
well as snow birds and othersmall spe-
cies of the feathered tribe. It was after-
ward found that their habitat in sum-
mer was the waters of Alaska, the Yu-
kon River, and the lakes of that hyper-
borean region. A reporter recently in-
terviewed C. J. Green, of Norton
Sound, western Alaska, and he confirms
the statement of Dall and others.
“People wonder where the wild fowl
come from,” said he. ‘They see the
sandhill crane, wild goose, heron, and
other wild fowl every spring and fall
pursue their unwearied way,but,like the
wind, they do not know whence they
come or whither they go. Up on Galo-
vin Bay, on the north shore of Norton:
Sound, is the breeding place of these-
fowl. All the birds in creation, seem--
ingly, go to that country to breed..
Geese, ducks, swans, and thousands up--
on thousands of sand hill cranes are-
swarming there all the time. They lay
their eggs in the bine-stem grass in the:
lowlands, and if you go up the river a
little way from the bay the noise of the
wild fowl is almost deafening. Mymniads
of swallows and robins are there, as well
as millions of magnificent grouse, wearing
red combs and feathered moccasins.
The grouse turns white as snow in win-
ter. You can kill dozens of juiey teal
ducks or grouse as fat as butter balls in
a few moments. The wild fowl and
bears live on salmon berries, with which
all the hills are literally covered.”
A Possible Chance for the Corn Burners.
Philadelphia Record.
The brewers of England are using
large quantities of American corn as a
substitute for barley in making beer.
The consequent falling off in the de-
mand for barley has brought about a
reduction in price. Even the prohibi-
tionist farmers of Kansas, who are burn-
ing their corn for fuel, will not be sorry
to profit indirectly in supplying the
hated British free traders with an indif-
ferent quality of beer.
Since the constitutionality of the
electrical execution Jaw, Kemmler, the
murderer, has been resentenced to die by
electricity at Auburn prison within the
week beginning April 28. Joseph
Wood, a colored laborer cinvicted of’
murder, has been sentenced in the New
York General Sessions Court to die by
electricity in the week
May 12.
beginning: