Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-05-18
Money Making Tarmers---sketehes OF ne"
England Rural Life.

Where are the men, then, who have grub
bed out of the reluctant eastern soil their
stockings legs of specie and their funds at the
bankg They are not wholly myths there are
such Find me man, VINO, by aptitude at
bargaining (let us not call it jockeyism) can
reduce the labor estimates in the foregoing
accounts By a third; who by kindred quail
" can add to the amount Of sales third ;
who can, by dint of early rising and perpet-
nal presence, stretch the ten-hOHr system into
twelve or fourteen; who by conquest OF
all finer appetites, can reduce the hoTe con-
sumption to a third OF the figure named in my
estimates, and sou have the type of one
class. A union of tremendous energy and
shrewdness; keenly alive to the phases of the
market an ally of all the hucksters; sharp
to pounce upon some poor devil of an emf
grant, before he has learned the current rate
of wages; gifted with quick scent of otfal,
,ghich may be had for the carriage, and which
goes to pig food or the fermentation of com
post.
| think I have limited character which
those will recognize who know the neighbor-
hood of large New England towns; a prompt
talker-not bashful-full of lfe-selectman,
perhaps; great in corner groceries, " fore
handed" interchangeable, trencbant with an
eye always to the windward-
If / were to sketch another type of New
England farmer, who is, in a small way, sue
wirv, with blueness about the complexion
that has come from unlimited bufetings with
north-westers; one who has been moderator"
at town meetings IN his day, and upon school
committees over and over /; one who has
sharpened his tongue by occasional talk at
society" meeting-to say nothing of domes-
tics practice
l think of him as living in a two-story,
white house, with green blinds (abutting close
~ upon the road and whose front rooms he
knows only by haIt-yearly summations to
ministers tea drinking, or the severer ordeal
Of the sewing circle. His hands are stiff ana
bony all the callOsities Of ak and scythe and
hoe, have blended into one horney texture
the whole of the epidermis; yet his eve has
a keen, shrewd fash in it, from the depths of
sixty years and under the hair Of his temple,
you may see a remaining bit OF bleached skin,
which shows that he VASTLY odd years ago
"a fair conplexioned boy.
He has grown gray upon his ggling farm
of one or two hundred acres yet il Is doub5-
full if the farm viii produce more now tian
on the day he entered into possession. Some
walls have been renewed and the old ones are
lettering Broken barways have been re-
placed by new ones and the wood pile has
its stock year after year; and every tenth
year, when oil l. down, the house has its coat
of paint-hIGself being mixer and painter
ladder
he employs country journeyman, who takes
haIfpay in pork and grain. When help is
low he clears some outstanding rye field and
commences new bit of wall--a disunited
link, which possibly his heirs may complete
Every year sIN, ten twelve hogs grow into
plethoric proportions; every year they are
butchered, under a great excitement of hot
water .aTd-tryings, unctious fatty smells
sausage-stulhng, and sales to the packer" of
In hr..r -lf- .s~l.
to his ueighbOrs, between services at meet
ing, with his forehuger in the pocket OF his
black waist-coat and the same sly twinkle in
his eye.
Every spring he has his d" yeals four, six,
ten, rs the case may be and every spring he
higgles in much the same way with the town
butcher, in regard TO age, TO price and to fat
ness. Every summer 1 see him IN black hat
black dress coat, on his wagon box, with but
ter nrkins behind, (the covers closed on lin
en- towels by the mistress at hUme) driving
to the market And if ] trot behind him on
his return, | see that his exchange has pro-
cured him two-gallon jug of n,olasses, a saw.
ory bundle of dried Goldfish, a moisty paper
parcel OF brown sugar, tight little bag OF
timothy seed, and new hoe or dung fork
But lie never allows his spendings to take az
the gross sum of his receipts; always there
goes home modieum, which grows by slow
and gradual accreton into notes (Secured by
mortgage) OF some pnthrifty neighbour, or al
entry upon the columns of his book at the
Savings.
There is no amateur of them all, who re-
ceiye much into Il third, for what be
may have TO sell, nor any one who spends as
little, by two-thirds, for what he may have 60
buy. Ii is incredible what such a man Will
save in the way of barter; and equally in
credible how rarely he finds occasion to pax
out money at ali. Yet he IS observant OF
proprIetes; his pew rent at the meeting
house s-d tax bills are punctually honored
II | bargain with him he loves Geliberatio.l;
ne has an opinion, but it only appears after
long travail and comparison of views--in the
course of which he has whitfield q stout billet
of wood to very fine point. III address:
him in the field, he stops, leans on his hoe
and 5 willing TO lavish upon me the only val
liable commodity for which he makes nc
charge, TO wit, his time.
Such man repairs his barn promptly
when the sills are giving way he does not
hesitate at the purchase of likely pair o.
ca t}t at bargain, he viii buy an occasion
al bag of guano, upon proof in his turnip
patch, on his winter rye; but if sub-soi
pillow is recommended, he gives a sly twinkle
to that grey eye OF his and a complimentary
allusioa TO the old Eagle No. 1 which set
ties the business.
Such men are in their way, money-makers
but rather by dint of not spending than by
large profits. These back-country gentlemen
have their families-aducated thanks to oul
shoot system1; boys, lank at the hist, in
short-2Tmed coats, and with pinch % the
vowel sounds in their speech, but they do no;
hnger around such homestead they come
to the keeping of hotels, or Of wood-yards on
the Mississippi; many are written down IN
the dead. books of the war.
Our raoney-nlaking farmer has his dsurh
ter TOO, with her Chrysanthemuns and striped
grass at the door, and her pink monster of a
Hydrangea. She has her Lady's Book, and
her Ledger, and on such literary food grows
space but such reading does not instll a
healthy admiration for the dsiry or butter
making; rosy cheeks and inearniadned arms do
not belong TO the heroines of her dreams I
do not think she ever heard of Kit Aarlow's
song:
wit IA Iae and L. Lara