The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-10-05


more about the man. We passed Q
farm nearly all hillside, but with .
narrow strip of bottom land. The
corn on the hillside was stunted and
worthless, but in the bottom it was
very fine. Stopping suddenly in the
road, the Major hailed the farmer,
blue. hopeless-looking man.
''Say, JONES'" he shouted. that's
mighty fine corn in the bottom"
Eyes, it's tolerable," was the de-
spending reply.
"Tolerable amt no name for it,"
said nv companion. There amt no
finer corn in the country. / always
did tell those town fellows that what
you didn't know about farming wasn't
worth knowing"
The gloomy Jones smiled with evi.
dent pleasure.
1T is my opinion" continued the
Major, thoughtfully, ''that you will
soon have the best-paying farm of its
size in the country. Just keep up the
lick, you know"
And. with a CHEEKY smile and
wave of the hand, he drove off.
Turning to me, he said:
Now, 1 talk that way on principle.
Why call Jones attention to his hill
side corn? Poor fellow! he looks at
that too much anyhow. l made him
look ON the bright side of things, and
whOoped him up. That's the way to
do it.
Throughout our ride this rosy, smil-
ing old man stopped every man, woman
and child, and gave them just such a
racket as he had given Jones, suitin9
his talk to the varying circumstances
of each case.
On our return to town / could moi
help noticing that the Majors encour-
aging words had already produced an
effect. AT many of the farm houses
the women folks had been told by their
husbands of what had occurred. They
looked upon us smiling from their
doorways, and at several places little
children were sent to waylay us with
fruit and buckets of cold spring water.
Even at the cottage of the respondent
Jones we saw that gloomy individual
laughing in high glee and chucking his
wife under the chm.
Jones will come out all right" SAID
the Major with a grin, IF not this year
then some other year"
Naturally / asked the Major how he
was getting along.
"Splendily," was the answer. "Tve
made about $40, 600 since / came here,
and I'll clear s., 900 this year"
He said much more, but these figures
will do. Before leaving the village /
had an hour to myself, and improved il
By making a few inquiries about the
Major. found that all he had in the
world was a place worth a few thou
sand dollars. and heavily mortgaged. /
found, too, that he made only a bare
living. He must have known that |
would learn the utter falsity of his
statements, but his old habit of lying
was irresistible. One thing struck me.
Every man in the town stood up for
the Major
He II never pay out of debt" said
one, ..but that makes no difference.
Nobody's going to press him."
You like him?" said.I.
1--WE love him." was the answer.
The Lord don't give us many such
men,"
All the testimony was to the same eff
feet. AS the train whirled me back to
the city my thoughts were decidedly
mixed. / said to myself:
Here is a cheerful old fraud who
can't tell truth to save his life. He
played double during the war. Helives
by false pretenses. Heis lazy, extrava-
giant, and an old bag of wind. Yet all
these people love him. They would
fight fot him. die for him, and, most
incredible of all, they credit him.
What is the secret of it all?"
Then / thought of the talk with
Jones, and the other farmers and their
wives. 1t all flashed upon me in a
moment. With all his faults the
Major genuine love for his fellow-man
made itself felt. 1t was invincible,
and it won the devoted friendship OF
the very men who hated his besetting
sins. Human sympathy is wonder
full thing. 1t will win a spontaneous
return when every thing else fails.
We can not well spare such men as the
Major. We need them to whoop up
the Joneses. atlanta Constitution.