Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-03-23
CLASSIFICATION OF LIES.

shall divide them into agricultural,
mercantile, mechanical ecclesiastical
and social lies.
First, then, | will speak of those that
are more particularly agricultural.
There is something in the perpetual
presence of natural objects to make a
man pure The trees never issue false
stock" Wheat fields are always honest.
Rive and oats never move out in the
night not paying for the place they
have occupied. Corn shocks never
make false assignments. Mountain
brooks are always current. The
gold on the grain is never counterfeit.
The sunrise never flaunts in false col
mrs The dew sports only genuine dia-
monds Taking farmers as a class l
believe they are truthful and fair in
dealing, and kind hearted. But the
regions surrounding our cities do not
always send this sort of men to our
markets Day by day there creak
through our streets, and about the
market houses, farm wagons that have
not an honest spoke in their wheels or
a truthful rivet from tongue to tail
board.
During the last few years there have
been times when domestic economy
has foundered on the farmers firkin.
Neither high taxes, nor the high price of
dry goods. nor the exorbitancy Of labor
could excuse much that the city has
witnessed in the behavior of the yeo-
manrv BY the quiet firesides in West
chester and Orange counties l hope
there may be seasons of deep reflection
and hearty repentance. Rural districts
are accustomed to rail at great cities
as given up to fraud and every form
of unrighteousness but our cities do
not absorb all the denominations. Our
citizens have learned the Importance of
not always trusting to the size and style
of apples in the top of the farmers bar
rel as an indication of what may be
found farther down, Many of our peo-
pie are accustomed to watch and see
how correctly a bushel of beets is
measured; and there are not many
honest milkcans.
Deceptions do not all cluster round
city halls. When our cities sit down
and weep over their sins, all the sur
rounding countries ought to come in
and weep with them. There is often
hostility on the part of producers
against traders. as though the man
who raises the corn was necessarily
more honorable than the grain dealer,
who pours it into his mammoth bin.
There ought to be no such hostility.
Yet producers often think it no wrong
to snatch away from the trader, and
they say to tie bargainer, You get
your money easy" Do they get 1t
easy? Let those who in the quiet field
and barn get their living exchange
places with those who stand today
amid the excitementS of commercial
life and see if they find it SO very easy.
While the farmer goes to sleep with
the assurance that his corn and barley
will be growing all the night, moment
by moment adding to his revenue, the
merchant tries TO go to sleep, conscious
that that moment his cargo may be
broken on the rocks or damaged by
the wave that sweeps clear across the
hurricane deck, or that reckless specu-
lators may that very hour be plotting
some monetary revolution, or the burg
lars be prying open MS safe, or ms
debtors fleeing the town, or his
landlord raising the rent, or the fires
kindling on the block that contains