.'I have sworn upon the Altar of God, eternal hostility to every form of Tyranny over the Mldjd of Man.Thomas Jefferson.
PAINTED AND PUBLISHED. BY JI. WEBB. 7
r
Volnmc ill. BLOOMSBI7RG, COLUMBIA COUNTY, FA. SATURDAY', NOVEMBER 23, 139. Nuknlxir XiQi
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A LOOKING-GLASS FOR FARMERS.
To J. Buel, Esq. editor of ' The Cul
tivator.' Dear Sir : When I was a boy, I can
well rcmembei how I used to be induced to
wash my smutty face, by having a looking
glass held before my eyes. For the same
purpose, I have extracted the following pic
ture of "a farmer," from the writings of that
most eccentric and excellent writer " Sam
uel Slick," in the hopes that if any of your
readers should happen to see any part. of
himself therein, that he will improve by the
view. Here it is.
That critter, when he built that
wreck of a house they call 'em a half house
here, intended to add as much more to it
come of these days and accordingly put his
chimbely outside, to sarve the new pait as
I weJl ei the old. He lias been too 1 busy'
ver since, you see to remove the banking
put there the first fall, to keep the frost out
of the cellar, and consequently it has rotted
the sills off, and the house has fell away
from the chimbloy, and he has had to prop
it up with great sticks of timber, to keep it
from coming down on his knees altogether.
All the windows are boarded up but one,
and that might as well be, for little light can
penetrate them ole hats and red flannel pet
ticoats. Look at the barn; its broken back
roof has let the garblo cends fall in, where
they stand staring at each other, as if they
would come close together and no doubt
they soon will, to consult what is best to be
done to gain their standing in the world.
Now look at the stock, there's your improv
ed short horns. Them dirty looking, half
starved geese, and them draggle-tailed fowls
that are so poor the foxes would be asham
ed to steal them that little lamern'd jawed,
ragged, rabbit eared runt of a pig. poor
eneak it cant curl its tail up that old cow
fraim standing thero with its eyes shut, and
looking for all the worlJ as though she's
contemplating her latter cend, and wiih good
reason too, and that other redish-yellow,
long-wooled varmint, with his hocks higher
than his belly, that looks as if he had come
.to her funeral, and which by way of distinc
tion, his owner calls a horse, is all the stock,
I guess, this farmer supports upon a hun
dred acres of good natural soil ns ever laid
out door. Now there's a specimen of Na
tive Stock. I reckon he'll imigiale to a
warmer climate soon, for you see the hen's
roosting on, that he calls a shed, he's had to
burn all the fence round the house, but
, there's no danger of cattle breaking into his
field, and his old muley has Iarnt how to
eneak around among the neighbors' field?,
of nights, looking for an open gate or bars-,
f . fcanu a iiiuuiuiiii uuir uuu men. i ui
"
you were to mow tne ineaitow with a ra-;
zor ana rane it with line tooth comb you :
couldn't get enough to winter a grasshopper.
Spose wo drive up to the door and havo a
word to chat with Nick Bradshaw, and sec
if he is as promising as out appearances in
dicate. Observing us from the only light of i
glass remaining in the window. Nick lift- j
ed tho door and laying it aside, emerged
from the kitchen parlor and smoke house to j
reconnoitre. He was a tall, well-built ath
letic man of great personal strength, and
surprising activity, who looked like a care
less, good-natured follow, fond of talking,
and from the appearance of the little black
pipe which stuck in one corner of his mouth,
equally so of smoking; and as he appeared
to fancy us to be candidates, no doubt he
was alroady enjoying in prospective the
neighboring lap-room. Just look at em.
Happy critter his hat crown has lost the
top out, and the rim hangs like the bail of a
bucket. His trowseis and jacket show
clearly that he has had clothes of other co
lors in other days. Theuntan'd moccason
an one foDt, which contrasts with the old
shoe on the other, shows him a friend to
domestic manufactures; and his beard is
no bad mach for the woolly horse yonder.
See the waggish independent sort of a look
the critter has, with his baton one side, and
hands in his breeches pockets, contemplat
ing the beauties of his farm.
" You may talk about patience and forti
tude, philosophy and christian resignation,
and all that sort of thing till you. get tired,
but-ah, here he comes, Morning Mr. Brad
shaw how's all home today?' Right
comfortable,' hear that, comfort in such a
place-' I give thanks come, light and
come in. I'm sony can't feed your boss,
but the fact is, ' tan'l bin no use to try to
raise no ciops late years, for body don't git
half paid for their labor, these hard times
I raised a nice bunch of potatoes last year,
and as 1 couldn't get nothing worth while
for' em in the fall, I tho't I'd keep 'era till
spring. But as frost set in while I was
down town 'lection time, the boys did'nt fix
up the old cellar door, and this infernal cold
winter froze 'em all. It's them what you
smell now, and I've just been telling the old
woman that we must turn too and carry them
out of the cellar 'fore long, they'll make iis
sick like enough, tat these's no telling what
may Happen to a body late years. And if
the next legislator do something for us, the
Lord knows but the whole country will
starve, for it seems as tho' the land now
days won t raise noth'ng. It's actually run
out.'
" Why, I should think by the look of
things around your neighbor Horton's that
his land produced nrettv well." " Whv.
yes, and it's a miracle too.how he gets it
for everybody round here said, when he
took up thst track, it was the poorest in the
town. There are some folks that think he
has dealings with the black art, for't does
seem as tho' the more he worked his land
the bettor it got."
Now here was a mystery; but an easy
explanation of Mi. Slick soon solved the
matter, at least to my mind. " The fact is,"
says Mr. Slick, " a great deal of this coun
try is run out, and if it warn't for lime,
marsh-mud, sea-weed, salt sand, and why
not, they've got here in such quantities, and
a few Horton's to apply it, the whole coun
try would run out, anil dwindle away to
just sich great good natural good-for noth
ing do-nothing fellows as this Nick Brad-
shaw, and his woolly horse, and woolless
sheep, and cropless farm, and comfortless
house, if indeed such a great wind rack of
loose lumber is worthy the namo of a
houso.
" Now by way of contrast to all this, do
you sec that neat little cottage looking house
pn yonder hamniocft.away to tho right thero,
where you 6ee those beautiful shade trees.
The house is small, but it is a whole house.
That's what I call about right; flanked on
both sides by an orchard of best graft fruit;
a tidy flower in front that the girls see to,
I and a most grand sarce garden iist over
theie, where it takes the wash of the build-
j1)(T9) nicely
sheltered by that bunch of
Bhubbery.
Then see them cveilasting big barns,
and, by gosh, there goes fourteon dairy
cows, as slick as moles. Them flowers,
honeysuckles and rose bushes, shows what
sort of a family lives there jtut as plain as
straws shows which wny tho wind blows,"
" Thorn galls an't tarnally racing round
to quilling and husking frolics, their fcot
exposed in thin slips to the mud, and their
honor to a thinner protection. No, no, tako
my word for't when you seo gals busy a
bout such things to home, they arc whatour
old minister used to call 'rirrht minded.'
Such things keep them busy, and when
folks are busy about their own business,
they've no time to get into mischief. I1
keeps them healthy, too, and as cheerful as
larks, I've a mind w'll 'light here and view
this citizens improvements, and we shall
be welcomed to a neat substantial break"
fast, that would be worthy to be taken as a
pattetn by the farmer's wife in America."
Wo were met at the.door by Mr. Horton,
who greeted my friend Slick with the warm
Salutatiop of an old acquaintance, and ex
pressed the satisfaction natural to ono ha
bitually hospitable, for the honor of my visit
He was a plain, healthy, intelligent looking
man about fifty, dressed as a farmer should
be, with the stamp of ' Homespun,' legible
upon every garment, 'not forgetting a very
handsome silk handkerchief, the work
throughout of his oldest daughter.
Tho room into which we were ushered.
bore the same stamp of neatness and com
fort that the outside appearance indicted.
A substantial home-made carnet covered
the floor, and a well filled book case and
writing-desk, were in the right place, among
the contents of which, I observed sever a)
agricultural periodicals. I was praticularly
struck with the scrupulously neat and ap-
propiato attire of the wife and two intelli
gent intorcsting daughters that were busily
engaged in the morning operations of the
dairy
After partaking of an excellent breakfasj
Mr. Horton invited us to walk over his
farm, which tho' small, was every part in
such a fine state of cultivation, that he did
not even express a fear of starving unless
the legislature did something to keep the
land from running out.
We bade adieu to this happy family, and
proceeded on our journey fully impressed
with the contrast between a good and bad
farmer, and for my own' part, perfectly sat
islied with the manner that Mr. Slick had
taken to impress it indelibly upon my own
mind.
Mr. Slick seemed wrapped in conlempla
lion of the scenes of the morning for a long
time. At length ho broke forth in ono
his happy strains. "The bane of this coun
try, Squire, and indeed of all America, is
having too much Jand they run over more
ground then they can cultivate, and crop
the land year afttr year, without manure
till it s no woiu'cr that it runs out. A very
large portion of land in America has been
run out by rppeatcd grain crops, and bad
husbandry, until a great portion of this
country is in a fair way to be ruined The
two Carolinas and Virginia are covered
with places that arc run out and are given
up as ruined, ana they are a plagcy site
too many such places all over New England
and a great many other Slates; Wo have
not the surplus of wheat that we used to
have in the United States, and it'll never be
so plenty while they are so many Nic
Bradshaw's in the country.
"'1 he fact is this, Squire, education is
dcucedly neglected. True we have a siht
of schools and. colleges, but they ain't the
right kind. The same Nick Bradshaw has
been clean through ono on'eni, and twas
there that he learnt that infernal lazy habit
of drinking and smoking, that has been the
ruin of him ever since, I would'nt give an
old fashioned swing-tail clock, to have my
son go to college where he could'nt work
enough to earn his own living and larn how
to work it right tu.
" It actilly frightens me when ! think
how the land is worked and skinned till
they take the gizzard out on't when it
might be growing better every day. Thou
sands of acres every ,ear aro turned into
barrens while an everlasting stream of our
folks are streaking it off to tho new conntry
where about half on em after wading about
among tho tadpoles to catch cat-fish enough
to live on a rear or two, actilly shake
themselves to death with that everlasting
cuss of all new countries, the fever and
agur
Its a melancholy fact, Squire, though
our peopl e don't seem to bo sensible of it
and you, nor I may not live to sec, but if
this awful robbin' of posterity goes on for
another I hundred years, as it has for the
last, airliong the farmers, we'll be a nation
ot patipers. Talk about the lccislature
doing i.soraething, I'll tell you what I'd have
them io. Paint a great parcel of guide
boards', and nail 'em up over every legisla
ture, c hurch, and school-house door in A-
5ricj , Willi these words on cm in great
letter, 'The best land in Ameeica, by
constant cnorpiNo, without manure will
uun ojl.' And I'd havo 'em also, provide
meaiui to learn every qhild how to read it,
no iy;e to try to larn the old ones, they're
so sm in their ways. They are on the con
stan'll stretch with the land they have, and
all tjlie time trying to git more, without im
profmg any on't. Yes, yes, yes, loo
mui';h land is the ruin of us all.
Although you will find a thousand more
go'd things among the writings of " The
CI ockmaker," I hope you will not look for
a l iteral copy of the foregoing. And if ever
thi'3 meets the eye of the writer of the "Say
injs and doings of Samuel Slick." I beg
hin'i to excuse me for tho liberty I have ta
ken with his own language. I remain your
agricultural friend. Solon RoniNsoN.
Lake C. II la. Oct. 12. 1838.
The capital article which follows, is from
th'3 "Old Dominion," an ably conducted
ps)per, printed at Portsmouth, Virginia. It
co.ntains much good sense and sound argu
ment, and it is well worthy the time its
po.rsnal will occupy.
KNOWLEDGE AND VIRTUE.
If there is any ono subject in which we
feel a deeper interest than any other, and
perhaps vc might say all others, it is that
of Education. It is an object of paramount
consequence with lis ; it is interwoven with
fibre of the heart, and blendod with every
principal of the mind. If there is a con
sumauon more arucnuy uesireu man any
oiner, it 13 mat we may see every poor
man'3 child, ay, every child in the land,
lurnisnea witn tne means ot acquiring
knowledge at a common school. It has
been matter of grief and wonder, to wit
ness so great a degree of apathy and inat
tention, upon a question of such stupendous
importance to tho American people, we
know not how to account for it how phil
anthropists, patriots, chrislains, can justify
their criminal ncgligcnco on this subject,
we must leave to their consciences to de
termine. For our own part, from this time
henccforvard, we are determined to bend
our energies upon this point. It shall not
be our fault that thousands of tho rising ge
neration are allowed to grow up in igno
rance, indolence and vice.
Not only have the American people been
wickedly remiss upon the subject of provi
ding more general means for the ilifl'usion
of knowledge, but even those they have
provided have been outrageously abused
They havo been expended in educating
Ameiican youth to become what ? Not
republicans not lovers of equal rights of
dcmociacy ; not to become' ardent advocates
of the largest liberty, and to consult the
greatest happiness of the greatest number,
No ! The tendancy of the system of educa
tion pursued at nearly all our colleges and
other seminaries of learning, is to make ar
istocrats : to lead the pupil to prefer the
splendid governments of Europe, to the re
publican simplicity of our own institutions.
Manv to their praise be it spoken, break
through these trammeU, overcome these
pernicious inlluenccs ana uccome arueni
and true friends of tho people ; of this we
have honorable instances ; our only regret
s that they are few, compared with the
whole number of graduates, One great
reason why so many lawyers, clergymen,
and others of the learned professions, are
so inimical to the genuine principles of A-
merican liperty, is the pernicious influence
of our present system of education at dolle
ges, which is so well calcnlated to make
anti-republicans.
In an excellent article in the Westmin-
ster Review attributed to the pen of Lord
Brougham, we find some useful hints. Tha
writer says Wc invent and improvo ma
chinery of every discriptiori, but the ma
chine of mind the worn out machinery
of our ancestors the fundamental cneine
that machine of all mechanics the cducrt
lion of man is not a jot improved sincd
the days of King Alfred. Education at tho
present day, if not absolutely pemiciouu
and useless is, to a great degree purpose
less it has tho mischievous result of occu
pying valuable means to no end' And if it
does all this, says the Reviewer, to no use
ful end, it is injurious, inasmuch as it impc
des the application of what would be useful
Life and money, labor and industry, are ex
pended in what is unproductive they
might pe expended in productive acquisi
tion. Tho machinery of education is anti
quated and bad and its product is nothing
or worse than nothing. We should laugh
at the man who should till his farm ns
farms were tilled before the Norman con
quest ; yet we maintain both by examplo
and precept, the system which cultivates
man's mind as it was done when man was
a tyrant and slave ignorant debased. Wa
seen to imagine that the whole of all that
is valuable in education consists in endea
voring to acquire a knowledge of two dead
languages Latin and Greek ; or rather as
we should say, in endeavoring to avoid ac
quiring them.or in forgetting and renouncing
them after they are acquired.
If education means anything, (we quota
again from the Westminister Review,) it is
the process by which the mind of man,
possessed with powers, but unfurnished
with ideas, is stored with knowledge, and
is enabled to apply this to the buisiness of
human life. The buisiness of life is, how
ever, no longer what it was in the days of
Alfred ; but the education is the same. If,
without education if, in spilo of a vicious
or an useless system, we have attained
that which we do poscss, it is not too much
to hope, that under a system of which tho
means are caloulated for the ends, we ara
yet immeasurably behind tho point which
we shall, at some future day reach.
We have no fear in asserting that tha
most enlightened people will always main
tain superiority over those who aro less in
formed that they will excel them, not
only in inention, but in industry ; that
they will resist or conquer them in arras ;
that they will exceed them in moral order,
and, what is not less important, will form,
or reform, a polical state better administered
and therefore more free from abuses, and
more conductive to the wealth and happi
ness of tho total community, It is were
every man tmderstands his oivn duties,
that he understands the duties of others and
those duties are his rights.
At this day every one knows that if ho
would hope to succeed, he must coraraeneo
his education when he is thought to havo
quitted it. He must educate himself ; and
thus doing, he condemns, by his practice,
the colledge system, in which he has been
brought up, though he is rarely honest e
nough to confess his own folly, or that of
his parents and ancestors, in maintaining
an almost useless system.
Tho education of those who aro really
educated, is their own work, not only aro-"
all the previous time and money lost, but'
that period of life which ought to have Been
occupied in acquisition has passed, never
to return, never to be compensated by after
industry. The college monopoly has chea
ted them with the semblance of leaching, it
has taught them what they havo not learned
or if they have learned, it has taught, they
have found, too late, that it is useless, and
must be forgotten. It has cheated them of
their wealth and their timo ; it has cheated
as far as it could, the state which depends
on their acquisitions ; it is not an Alma Ma
ler, but a Harpy and a Robber. Twenty
times a century the world wonders at a self
taught Ferguson, Rittenhouse, Fianklin,
Watt, and Burns, or a Chantrey. It for
gets that all which are taught, are equally
self-taught', but tho colleges receive tho
praise and the individual alone, who knows
ft