The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1880-01-31
TEXAS STATE CIR
CHRONICLES OF THE GRANGE

CHRONICLES OF THE GRANGE.
READ BEFORE THE PEORIA COUNTY
GRANGE, ILLINOIS, AT ORANGE HALL,
NOVEMBER 9TH, 1870.
Now it came to pass when the 10th
century was booming along towards its
latter end, and light and knowledge
Were twinkling in every nook and corner
of the world, even into the uttermost parts
thereof, that the sons of the tribe of hus-
bandmen in America We're oppressed.
Not as the weak and scattering remnants
of fallen races are trodden underfoot of
mighty nations, because they are no lon
ger valiant in war, but because they were
soft, and green, and SO utterly blinded
with simplicity as to barter their birth
right for stale and unsavory old mess of
pottage. For tradition was firmly es-
tablished in that land that whose follow
eth the pillow must never lose his grip on
the plow, but dig industriously in the
ground from the rising to the setting of
the sun, and from the dawning of youth
unto the hoary hairs and lettering foot
steps of old age, and that the husband
man who harbors a thought higher than
the dust under his heels is tempting Prov
idence, and will surely be cut off from
among the tribes of our modern Israel for
the naughtiness of entertaining high no.
tons.
Thus it came to pass that these men of
toll got kinks in their spines, an humble
squint in their eyes, and knotted joints in
all their prominent bones, and the men of
other tribes, in derision, dubbed them
Horny handed Farmers" The evening
and the morning were as one, summer
dragged along in the wake of winter, un-
til the burden of their toll waXed so great,
and bowed them down with such an ut
ter load of WEAKNESS, that they lost heart
and forgot that they were men, looking
forward only to the coming of night so
they might lie themselves down in sleep,
and thus in the still watches have little
season of forgetfulness. They were al
ways too tired to brave the usages of their
times and indulge in thought; they were
10th to commune together about how to
better their condition; they lacked faith
and dared not trust each other in the self
help of cooperation, and had SO lost that
healthy grip of their wits that their brains
did not serve them only little above the
instincts of donkey in the highway.
Now it was so that while the horny
handed farmers thus bowed down to their
ateS and stay the stomachs of everybody
IN the world, that another tribe in our
modern Israel was hanging around wait
ing for something to turn up. The men
OF this tribe were known as ''Middlemen,
and the whole prime gist of their calling
was to occupy dignified seats of leisure
waiting for the husbandman's corn to be
npened in the ear, and for his kline, swine
and sheep to be fattened ready for the
SHAMELESS. 1t was then the further prov
lnce of these middlemen to make sale
thereof, and to put the chief part OF the
scrip in their own pockets, to the end that
they might be big nabobs, and make the
sons and daughters of their own tribe shl-
nng lights and leaders in society, with
White hands and high notions of the arls-
tocracy of idleness. SO it came to pass
that the middlemen multiplied exceed
iingly in the great kingdom of the an
KEGS, and they waxed fat and kicked, and
Clothed themselves in soft raiment each
man with mantle of the finest fabric,
and glossy plug hat set jauntily on the
crown of his head AMI they gathered
themselves together in villages, and clus
tered in towns, and abode in great cit
les dwelling in palaces after the manne
OF mighty men, and putting on more frill
than are meet and comely among the fal
len children Of this world 1t seemed ;