Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-06
TEXAS EXHIBIT CARS,
AT DIES MONIES, IOWA, ATTEND
ING THE STATE FAIR.
The Trip from Chicago TO Waukesha aud
the Stay ut the Latter Place De-
scribed-Thc People Amazed.
COLEMAN, TEX, Sept. I, 1897.
Editor Gazette.

COLEMAN, TEX. Sept. I, 1897.
Editor Gazette.
DEAR SIR-The boys put good man 10
bed here the other day, He is I man of
good sense. a good business man, robust
and in good health. The first one to meet
him in the morning told him that he looked
very pale, the next said he looked sick, the
next, that he must have mad a hard spell of
sickness, and so on until ne began 10 com
plain, grew worse and Went 10 bed 4 very
sick man, as he thought. This little incl
dent is nothing very strange. II IS III ac-
cOrdauce with human nature the world
over.
1t seems 10 he TO De u complete parable
on the political situation in Texas. ana l
believe greater part of the Union to-day.
Commerce, business il general, and in
fact republican government, is made pos
sible only through confidence of each man
in his neighbor; each enterprise in the
stability of its fellow enterprise The
stronger this confidence the more active IS
business, the more iiourishing Is commerce.
the more stable is our republic. Whatever
goes to strengthen this confidence should be
encouraged, whatever goes 10 weaken II
should be opposed.
Within my recollection the farmer was
the SturdieSt. the most independent and the
least complaining class of people we had,
but it is not now so. Whenever there Is
complaining and unrest and murmuring by
any one class of our people against another,
confidence is weakened and hard times fol-
low just to the extent that confidence is so
weakened.
Now, it is we'll known that the farmer is
the complaining class at present. Now
what is the cause? Why can We no longer
look TO the great agricultural class as our
sheet anchor. as our great reservoir from
which TO draw strength and purity i'll bust
ness, in politics and in religion Why can
we no longer i'll trOublous times look back TO
our old homes on the farms with certain
confidence that there at least yet remains
purity and confidence and patriotism, Why
have the farmers too become suspecting,
quarrelSome and uncertain, II is upon the
same principle that the boys put our man TO
bed. Designing men, men who had some
sinister and Interior purpose in view; men
who wished to take advantage of their con-
fidenCe and cared not how they obtained it;
men with hearts devoid of social duty and
fatally bent upon mischief went among
them and told them that they were imposed
upon as a people. This was continued
within closed doors and out of
closed doors, was talked and bleated
from the windy bellies and brainlcss
heads of Il constituencies tribe until they
began to thinl. there was something really
the matter, until it has come to pass that any
man, from the constable to the president,
who may stand in need of a vote, raises the
hue and Cry OF poor farmer. They have
been oyer-persuaded i'll this way until they
have come to admit themselves TO be in
trouble, and that they are dOwntrod-
den. The would-be politician and
his coterie of newspapers of doubt
full meaning have endeayored to per-
suade the poor farmer that he
Is in bondage in the land of the Pharoas
that each may be the Moses to lead ride
them out of Egypt. But behold. when they
b.Nrf IpH in mo
ness and have the people ready to be led,
there are more, MoSeses rise up claiming the
honor than there were flies TO tickle the
nose of the PharOa of historic fame, And
when the darkness has cleared away we
expect 70 find each one has turned to his
brother Aaron and erected Il golden calf
But this is Il depression. They have evil
IDENTIFY succeeded in putting the farmer 10
bed. | remember when the farmer was the
last man to ask fOrpity, when If Il man had
dared to come among the farmers and
whiInpered and petted and fondled and
pitied them for vote he would have been
Missed from the stand and rotten-egged
from the country. Look at what the game
of putting the man to bed has done for this
noble and sturdy class of men. They first
listened, then complained, and then got
downright sick Would it DE strange under
this treatment if continued that they should
actually die, 1t pains every noble and true
sturdy and independent, cringinG, fawning,
whining and even Sniveliu9 under the pet
ting hand of some SeuSelesS demagogue.
Why has the farmer come to think ne is the
petted baby who will not stop crying, much
less listen, unless he is offered the biggest
piece of pie? 1t is simply because he has
been made to believe he is sick Why is it
that every article we read, every speech we
hear from great or small, with 4 few
exceptions, Is pregnant with the one
idea that the farmer is i'll distress.
Simply because he has been made TO be-
lieve there is something unusual the matter
with him, and the writers and speakers are
pandering to his whim. Now. Mr.. Editor.
| want to tell the farmer that he is not sick
| want to tell him that he is as prosperous
in this country as any other class of men
among whom he lives. And l am ready to
prove it. He has no battle TO make with
his neighbor We are all in the same box.
We have great and common enemy to
meet. We have common cause to fight.
Then why stand and quarrel Why does
each turn upon his neighbor and accuse
him of oppression: Remember, my farmer
friend that your neighoor merchant is just
Us hard pressed as YOU, and that every
time that You complain of him you add to
his burden without making your own less.
That every time YOU complain of your
neighbor YOU weaken confidence, without
which we can never have prosperity.
Cheer up, give Your beighbor the right
hand of fellowship. Put your shoulder 10
the wheel Gather round the flag of your
fathers and move on against the common
enemy, and if any man come among you to
persuade YOU that YOU are oppressed by
your neighbor. tell him TO move on, and if
he be candidate, shoot him on the spot.
These are hard times. but my farmer friend,
they are no harder for YOU than they are
for your neighbor merchant or neighbor
anybody else. The sooner we get conf
dence restored the sooner we Will come
upon better times. PETER HAMILTON.