Sun River sun. [volume] (Sun River, Mont.) 1884-1885, 1884-12-04
ARP PULLING FODDER.
He Dives Down Into the Tricks Of
Trades and Shows How One
Class 0ouges the
Other.

We are pulling fodder now. I've
hired two men to pull by the day and
two to pull by tho hundred bundles.
I want to see which is tho cheapest.
But they get me anyhow, and I can't
help it. If they rull by the day they
don't make 100 good bundles apiece,
which they ought to make at IS cents
a day, and if they pull by the hun
drcd they make over 200 bundles, and
some Of them are mighty light. But
it is all right reckon. They are
watching me and I am watching
them. 1t is the same old story--cap-
ital against labor. There arc tricks
in all trades. You can count the
hands in n bundle, but you can't count
the blades in hand, and so they can
make them heavy or make them light
according to pay. I've hired cord
wood cut by the cord, and they can
pile it SO loose that pack Of hounds
can follow fox right through it and
never touch a hair. But it is no
deep laid scheme to cheat you. They
are just sloshing along, and you can
settle with darkey easier than with
any creature upon the earth. A mean
man can pay them in bacon ut Is
cents pound and flour at 4, when tho
cash would buy one at 10 and the
other at 3, and he can cheat them rs
per cent in tho weights and they will
never know any better and never care
The Lord never made such an easy,
unsuspecting creature Us free mig
ger. There are white men who take
advantage OF them and cheat them
and get their labor for their vittles
and clothes; but tie darkey is sure Of
a living anyhow, for if he can't earn
it he can steal it, so it is all right any
how and tho races keep about even.
Some farmers are tricky, too; when
they take chickens to town the slckly
ones are sure to 80, and the best po-
tatocs are put on top Of the basket;
the richest pine is Oh the outside Of
tho load, and some rotten corn will
get in the shelter when the meal is for
market The merchant has his tricks,
too. He will bait you with something
for less than cost and make it up on
something else at so per cent. To
keep up with hard competition be will
sell you shoes with pasteboard soles
and nails that break in two under the
hammer, and shoddy goods Of all
sorts, for his customers want every
thing at the lowest price whether it is
good or bad, and it is buckle and
tongue whether the merchant can get
ahead Of his customers OF they get
ahead Of him. Ono thing is certain,
when the merchant forgets to charge
anything it is lost, forever lost. If he
makes mistake in change OF weight
or measure he hears Of it il it is in his
favor, and il it is tho other way may
be he don't. don't know for certain.
Tho miller mixes corn meal with
his flour nowadays. They all do it
up NORTH and our millers say they
have to do it too to keep up, and they
comfort themselves with the idea that
it is healthier and better, even though
it is u fraud upon the customer. The
baker gives six loaves for Il quarter
instead Of five, and that satisfies his
customers, though the five weighed
just us much as tho six do now Any
thing to satisfy and keep the people
calm and serene. There is Il power OF
comfort in going homo and showing
up their bargains. Improves that they
are smart in II trade, OF popular with
1he merchant, and that shows how
smart Il good merchant is, for he can
make ninety out of hundred custom
ers believe that he likes them better
than anybody. Civility and little
pleasant hattery is splendid capital
for merchant II my wife was to
hear accidentally that merchant in
town told somebody that she had the
pretticst and best hammered daughter
in the community, she would go right
there to trade and wouldn't jew him
down on anything.
But the biggest fraud of all is in
the marrying business, and the man
is guilty Of it heap oftener than the
woman. I'm not talking about the
regular society woman in town or
Il city, for don't think that anybody
can cheat her. Sho is generally an
iceberg in passed. of fine clothes, and
she don't know how to do anything
but read novels and visit, but the
average girl who marries for love is
oftener fooled than the average man.
The time used to be when q man
didn't begin To forget his wife until