Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1858-01-22
THE TIMES.
QUOTATIONS OF AN OLD FARMER.


sr US as everybody else is bothered
Possibly We may not be so badly dam
aged as some others, but we know enough
about the hard scratching which they
inhict upon US to wish they were other
wise. We have had good" times too,
and quite run of them for several years
until few months ago. So the same
q everybody told US time and again.
Yes, they were good times. We had
free trade, and free credit abroad /; and
we used it freely too, with a vengeance.
We have built long array of free rail
roads, free to the select coteries of specu- |
lators who got them up for their own
special benefit, mind you, on bonds which
were gobbled up by the usurers with de-
cided freedom. The roads gave free
passes to the legislators, and judges of
the country, as well as to various editors,
for which, the little share that we had in
the riding, we shall never cease to thank
them. We imported millions of free
goods that we did not need, but which
we have made out to wear, and eat, and
drink, and dispose of in one way and
another and the beauty of it is, those
which are not paid for, or used up-and
they are many-the owners are free to
send hack to where they came from, as
many Of them probably will, or let the
goods lie long while in the bonded ware
houses, awaiting better times for sale and
consumption.
The truth is, for the last eight or ten
years we have built extravagantly, dress
nonsensically, lived lavishly, speculated
wildly, trusted everybody about Us, as
we got trusted abroad, and "laid loose ="
around, generally. Our farmers got
great prices for their produce to feed the
fools and tyrants who were doing up their
OWL fighting in Europe and they got
such prices so long that they supposed
they were always to have them. Our
towns were so prosperous, and people in
them got rich so rapidly that vast many
others, old and young, who were doing
well enough on their farms and thought
they could do a great deal better in town
left them to know little peace or quie-
tude afterwards. Our women and girls
quit spinning stocking yarn at home, and
took to spinning street yarn, and wearing
crinoline abroad. Instead of humping
the clothes in the pounding barrel in the
kitchen, they took to humping the piano,
and the melodeon in the parlor; while
the boys, and " Young America took to
" fast horses" long nines," d" cocktails, .
and a general "cut up all around the
board, and so went the world.
These be homely truths, bluntly spo.
ken, we admit. But are they not true
We opine them to be so, for we have seer
: such times before-beating the railroad
speculation - twenty years ago ant
which we have the best reasons to re
member so long as we live.
Our lives are mixed commodity O
good and evil. The old patriarch ia
cob, who, after many days of prosperity
: clouded occasionally with trife of ad
versity, being brought in deep afflictioI
and questioned of Pharaoh of his life
answered 81 few and evil have been til,
days of my pilgrimage" So a grea
many OF US may say now yet, with al
: the warnings of wise men for some tim,
Il past, like Jeshurun of old, we "waxec
fat and kicked " at the shadow of calami
: ty alar off; and with the hcmely proverl
having danced, we now must pay the I'D
der. In short we have to square &C
: counts-those who can-and for thos
> who can not, they must do the best the
5 can, and get " clear of the ropes" some
e how. In sober truth, we must settl
r up" and again 60 to work. We mus
: cease importing goods we do not want
: we must abandon superfuities we do Ito
S need we mnst stick TO our farms, GU
Z. workshops, and our trades, whatever the,
# may be-if we can get living by tEeu
: and if we can not do that, take thos
0 at which we can. Instead of earnin
one, five, or ten hundred dollars a yeal
r and spending more, we must earn all w
r can, and spend less. That is the onI
! true and honest way to fortune. A grea
: master of human life has said
J. Sweet are the uses of adversely,
l. winch, like Il toad, ugly and venomous
Hath yeta pr ecious jewel i'll lis lead''
He did not know much about toad
however, for they are decidedly goo
things in gardens.
: 90 Those who admonish their friend
,fI says Plutarch, should observe this rulC
e not to leave them with sharp expires,