Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1868-04-17
The Honest Mans Tract.
Ne. 2.


If IT'S Hard Winter for Poor Men. :
there is u cause for it, for effect follows
cause jastas surely As day succeeds night.
The cause may be more or less remote,
or it may be immediate. 1t may be
a. apparent As the Sun At MONDAY OF lie
hidden from view.
Ills 4 hard winter" to rs Down East,
because the cold has been severe and con
tinuous. We look buck into November. and
il was saowr AMI il has continued like Sc
we're up to this time. April l0th. The old
est inhabitant'' does not rceollect more
stern. or Il harder winter. 1t has been so
long that our winter supplies for man and
beast are quite all consumed. This may
not happen again for ten or twenty years.
and if it does. Oh, hottest poor man. with
whom will yoI quarrel? Who is to blame?
If you. mechanic. had entered the Ship
yard the 10th of March. with bland skies.
and SNOW disappeared, instead of the 10th
OF April with Il foot of snow on the ground
with cold nights and raw days and cold
time would have contributed much to your
happiness. and the comfort of your fami-
lies. But who is to be blamed for this late
Spring? Is there any help for it? viii
an honest man who believes in Providence,
rise up in Judgment on the way: Of God:
VIII he look no higher than man, and seek
! to cast the blame fJc this c..a:c OF & ',hard
winter" on the Government ora party:
But in what light shoul | The mln b. held,
who seeks 10 prejudice an honest man
against his Government and his rHicrs by
deception. or upoA false representations.
or By coacealing half the truth. or by 50
blending patent facts With concealed false
hoods. that he cannot well understand
"what is Truth:% 4 well known writer
avs
"But of all evil door. the Political Litr-oac
who haSitu4lly aud enormously i:lsiics occur
renee, aud statistics, thereby deceiYiig and mis-
| guiding honest, Wcll-mcaning men, whose leisure
and opportunities for studying documents are in
ferior to his owns among the hasest and wick
cdest lie is "A bel gycrpnt who poisols fDunt aims
burns no pitals and decoys the enemies vessels
Iato his power by displaying aig Of distress. so
mlieactor more richly deserves the scogn aud cx-
Another cause why to us in Eastern
Maine, Ills Il hard winter" is that last
summers business did not foot up we'll, in
other words. did not leave surplus in Our
pockets after paying expenses. 1t often
happens thus. 1t is not new thing under
The sun. We can all remember similar
condition of our personal affairs. Farm
ing was hard business for the reason that
the Summer was an unprecedented wet
one. We raised surplus of no one thing
hut hay, and the long winter fiads this
staple article nearly all consumed. So this
business was nearly Il failure. The fish
ing business for number of years hal
been prosperous, the fares and the prices
good but last year was an exception
Many in the business did not pay expenses
| The fares may have been good, but the
prices were lower. 1t cost rs much to fit
ont as formerly. Salt AID provisions near
ly as high, and wages quite so.
| The Porgy business has grown into i'm
portance on this coast within the past ten
years. We lave no statistics by which to
/ tell the amount of money Invested in it,
nor the number of hands employed, bu, it
is an important branch of orr industry.
But this hitherto profitable business, was
in many cases failure, the past season.
1t makes quite difference whether the
men engaged in it about Frenchman's Bay
receive 100000 as net earnings, or wheth-
er it takes that sum to pay their bills, over
and above the proceeds arising from the
business.
Ship Building was not at all profitable
last year. Materials and labor were high
and the prospective look for business in
frcighting did not justify .he laying o
many new keels. The Poor Man Should
not complain because wages were high
but the cause why materials were of ;
! high cost will be alluded to in anothc
place.
The Lumber business, perhaps was tn
best Of any, but this get no man rich las
, year.
Our local industries have been particu
larized because we need go no farther thai
sat our own doors - TO find sufficient rea
, sou for q ''hard winter" in our midst
/ Corn is sl.75 per bushel, flour from SIS t.
SIS per barrel. sugar shilling per lb.
&C. These we all have to use. But our fan
/ mers, if the rugged soil of their neglecte'
farms had been subdued and the seaso
$ had been propitious, should not complain
: of 'shard winter" because potatoes brin,
: in our market tl.25 per bushel, turnip
i Ga IL cts, oats Sl.l0. barley $l.33, bean
y $500 10 $500, and he should raise his ow
e -four. Who can the farmer blame?
IS ANYBODY to blame! If the last season o.
: the whole, was not SO favorable, should h