The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1880-01-31

peasant thing in the eyes of these les-
aaeIy sous to eat bread which they had not
1"l neu' ana to strut up and down among
IN ne .apefnacles of the sons of men with
al inc pomp OF potentates who are anoin.
tea 10 be rulers in the kingdom.
Inc lawyers also and the politicians
Satnereo together, saying, at is not good
h 1,aal men who were, born to dig should be
| ootnered about legislation, or about the
| Perplexing affairs of State" Wherefore
.hey took sly counsel, the one of the other.
IN secret, and banded themselves together
Tor the purposes of law-giving. holding
tue ofhces, and occupying all lucrative sit
uations where titles and money were to
De had without sweat, and where simple
fustlcs would bow the knee and look up
10 them as patriarchs of the Republic
ana they did all place crooked spectacles
upon their noses, and SO managed to OBJ
scure lntricacies of legislation that the
mons share of anything worth having
never fell to-the lot of the farmers. Like
wise the statutes of the Republic they
cobbled up with so man, deep and doubt.
ful interpretations that only Philadelphia
lawyer, with a big wig and fat fee, could
discern the meaning thereof
Moreover, those who were set apart to
levy the tribute money managed SO
| adroitly that while the wealth of the cit
les was taxed only pittance, the home
steads of the farmers were made the chief
source of revenue, and were so burdened
with taxation that their assessment was
doubled every year. e.r - ..s.s
Then, too, those crafty men who car
RED on the commercial traffic of the rail
roads were persistent in their continual
and unrighteous determinations against
the farmers, for they had their schedules
OF tariffs SO arranged that the petty trader
who speculated on his wits in the big cit
les had his goods transported for mere
song, while the frugal and long suffering
husbandman out along the line could not
send his products to the market without
paying out a bushel for the carrying of a
peck.
And it came to pass furthermore that
all the ravenous agents, of high or low de-
gree, after grasping all they could, each
IN his own way, formed themselves into
huge central rings and monopolies for the
sole purpose of getting wealth by squeez-
ing it out of those who earned it with the
sturdy right arm of honest labor. And if
perchance the vexed soul of the farmer
waXed desperate and he murmured about
SO many hands being thrust into his
pocket, they laughed him to scorn, say
ing, go to, thou rude and green gosling
of country Jake! Poke thou thy trow-
sers into thy stoga boots and make sudden
tracks for the corn field, for behold thou
art an ignoble mud sill, and thy mission
is supporting us, the upper crust of all the
world. Close thou thy mouth and whine
no more, or we will tread thee still deeper
into the ground" 7.. "-
And it was so, in the fullness of time,
that these impudent remarks and cheeky
proceedings of the reproducing classes
SO ranked in the bosoms of certain pro-
gressive husbandmen that they paused in
their burrows, got on their thinking caps
and went into a deliberate investigation of
their own rights. And it came to pass
that all this profound thinking ended in
revelation, and square tilt full in the face
of the oPPressors.
Thus was the Grange founded upon the
necessities of down trodden tribe, and
thus was the beacon light of a new hope
flashed into the eye of the detected hus-
bandman. And when the fame of this
new order was noised abroad through the
land it caused an exceeding great commo
ton; so much SO that the horny handed
farmers, and their wives, and their sons,
and the goodly young hand -maidens came
marching in from the hill-tops, and from
the prairies, a host that no man could
number, and straightway they all made
haste to put hay seed in their hair, and to
knock at the outer gates of the Grange.
And of all that was said, and sung and
done before this great multitude had each
one with quaking heart made that myste-
rious journey on the bucking launches of
the Grange goat" it is not meet to pipe
the particulars in the ear of the public.
Suffice it to be written in the annals of
the book that the Patrons of Husbandry
became a power in the land, making
straight a great many crooked paths, and
bringing cheer to great many despon-
dent hearts. For behold a shiver like
unto the grip of an ague crept into the
shoes of the middlemen, and so shook out
the starch of their arrogance that they
are on the anxious seat of a wholesome
terror even unto this day. Likewise the
sons of the rustics who aforetime were
bowed down with the bondage of dig
cling are Strengthening up very stiff ram
rods in their spinal columns, and are ia
king mental reckoning of the situation,
and learning that part OF their legitimate
business is to keep track of and supervise
all of their own affairs. 1t can not but be
that lamentations still make sore the hearts
of the righteous, because the surplus of
money changers are not yet all cast out OF
the agricultural synagogue, but finished
reforms can not jump into being in day,
and although too many traders still hang
| on in the outer courts of the rustic tenn
pie, they have had SO many rebuffs and
| wholesome backsets that their joy is UNI
speakable if they can only pocket 1.-THE
of their former profits.
| Moreover it is written in the scroll OF