The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1888-07-05

way reduce the expenses of the gov
eminent, and therefore tighten the
burden of taxation. Sirs, we make
the money, and think we ought to
enjoy an equal share in it. The
farmer feeds the world, and has less
luxuries than any other class of peO-
pie in the world. The farmer is re-
garded as good-for-nothing fellow,
and there is always some one setting
q trap for him. For instance, look in
the newspapers at the advertisements
telling of all the easy ways to make
money, but YOU have first got to send
to them, and they will send you some
kind of reply, and get you excited
over the thoughts of making fortune
at once, and get three or four dollars
out of you, and that is the last of
them, and by the time they get around
over the United States, in that way,
they are able to sit up some kind of
business or set back at ease till they
use that up, when they start some
thing else.
1.-THE chinch. bng eats the farmers grain,
The moth-bug spells his honey;
! The bctl-bng fills him full of pain,
And the hum-bug scoops his money"
Now. brethren, we must come down
to brass tacks; we must put our shout
der to the great Alliance wheel, and
help to roll it on. You know in
playing marbles if you knock out the
middle man, You have got the game;
and so it is with us: five can establish
a cooperative store, and get our
goods direct from manufacturers, in a
short time | think we will be greatly
improved from what we are now, and
by -and-by we will handle our own
goods; that is, they will be manufact-
ured by the Farmers Alliance, and
sold at reasonable per cent. and
then we will handle our own money
and rattle it in our own pockets.
Sirs, did you ever look around you,
and see the true condition of the
majority of the laboring class of peo
pie? Did you ever go into the poor
mans house in the winter and see
them as they actually are! A house
full of little children standing around
the fire barefoOted, and their clothes
worn out, and no money to buy more3
Did YOU ever go to the table to eat,
and there see them seated to partake
of their little mite, and one is afraid
to take as much of one thing as is
wanted for fear there will not be
enough to go around? Did you ever
go into the cotton field, on a cold,
frosty morning, and see them pulling
at the cotton, their fingers SO stiff
with cold that when they get boil
picked, apt as not they will drop 1t?
And did yon notice very often they
are barefooted, and when they go to
the fire to warm, you will see their
father look at them for few minutes,
and then turn his head? And did you
notice the sigh that forced its way
from his heart? Did you notice for
awhile if he tried to speak, his words
would almost stop in his throat! All!
say my friend, did you notice it? did
if you did not. Did you ever see your
aged father and mother, toiling day
i'll and day out, trying to make a liv
ingf Did you ever see them compelled
to sit down in the field to rest, trem-
bling with heat and over-exertiOn?
Did you ever see them sit down at the
table to eat, when they were so tired
they would almost faint? Did you hear
them at night when they went to bedP
Did you hear the mournful groans
that came forth from their pale lips,
as they breathed themselves to sleep?
Did you see them the next morning
when they got out of bed, so stiff they
could hardly walk and at every step
you could hear their joints pop? Say,
did you see them7 did if you did not.
All! my friends, is there no man in
you, Are you not willing to come to
the front, and do all in your power
to relieve these burdens of life? Were
yOu ever at farmers house in the
winter, when he got home from town,
after he had sold his last cotton? Did
you notice the little piece of meat i'll
the wagon, with the bone in it? Did
you see the little paper sack of coffee?
Did you notice he had no sugar, nor
rice; no candy, apples, nor oranges?
And after he ate supper, and went in
the house, did you notice the awful
silence, as he and his wife sat there
by the fire, both too full of trouble to
speak? And did you notice the sobs
of the little ones in bed? And did you
notice when that father and mother
got up to go to bed, their cheeks were
wet with tears9 Did you notice that?
did, if you did not. And did you
know when Christmas came, it was the
sumo thing over again, only worse.
Yes, my friends, | have experienced
that whether you have or not.
And now, in conclusion, let me beg
of you to put your hand and heart in
the Alliance cause, and if our days
are to be spent in toiling and igno-
rance, let us try to place the rising
generation in better condition, that
after we are launched out into a world
yet unknown, as they sit around their
happy firesides and read the history
of our lives, they will then know what
we underwent, that we might achieve
for them happiness beyond degree.
IAN papers friendly to the Farmers
Alliance will please copy.]
To the Baptists of Mississippi.