The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1891-03-13
LETTER FROM UNCLE JOSH.
FIDDLER's CREEK, March ,.

FIDDLER's CREEK. March ,.
No. Z.
Editor Free F-sss:
1t was half-past ten O'Clock thai
night, when the Deacon left my house
after closing his remarks with those
three words, brains and Determine.
ton" My family had long since re.
tired. and / was left alone with my
thoughts. went over and over again,
the arguments, advanced by the Dea-
con. / tried TO persuade myself that
he might be more than half right in
his views, but the more I dwelt on the
subject, the more / was impressed
with the idea that the Deacon was
drifting away from his moorings. The
trend Of his argument was most IN
mistakably in the direction Of COM
bination = concentration monopoly.
All these hideous, these monstrously
wicked evils Of modern times; were
not these the deadly foe of the far
mer? Was not the Alliance fighting
these very evils with all the power it
could command? Certainly, and it
was righteous war if there ever was
one on this earth, and here was the
Deacon actually advocating their
cause, in my presence, in my own
house. II was monstrous, and grew
indignant at myself for not speaking
my mind before the Deacon had gone
away. / grew impatient to combat
such dreadful evils.
Modern business methods, . indeed:
and SO my very best friend was advo-
eating the very evils that were abhor-
red by all honest men, 0, no, this
could not be so, for more honest man
than the Deacon, never lived on this
earth: and did he not say this very
evening, that his sympathies were all
enlisted on the side of the farmer
Certainly he did. and the Deacon is
not the man TO say one thing and mean
another, and ! had more than one rea-
son for believing that he loved his
farm life dearly: that he lived on a
farm from choice, and not from neces-
sity, which had always been puzzle
TO me, for knew that he had plenty
of means / had seen no less than
four bank books, on his desk in his
study.
/ saw one lying open on his desk one
day, when / happened in, and saw
81, 900 TO his credit in that one book,
and / thought if the other books made
as good a showing as that one did,
that he must be rich man. His room
was great curiosity TO me. He called
it Ibis study" One side of the room
was built up entirely of shelves, and
these were filed with books. One sec
tion was taken Up with law books, an
other with historical works. and tray
els, and lives OF our great men. He
also had the Geological Reports of
nearly every state in the Union. in a
place all by themselves. Then on an
other side Of the room, he had some
broad. low shelves, which were loaded
with scientific journals, magazines,
trade journals, &c, &c, and then a
table for newspapers and when /
thought of all these things. as | sat
by my freSide alone that night, the
thought suddenly occurred TO me. why
does the Deacon 90 halves" with me
for the FREE PRESS Why indeed,
with all his wealth. Could it be, that
knowing my somewhat straibened cir
cumstances, he took this way of doing
a little act Of kindness: He was a
strange character to me. Why should
he prefer TO visit with me? There
were other farmers, joining him on the
west. that were much better off than /
could ever expect to be. Then my
mind would revert to the subject of
the evenings conversation, and, Mod
ern business methods. brains and
determination, Farmers the biggest
fools on earth, and score or more Of
these expressions would drift before
my mind, until was fairly bewildered.
What earthly good could come out of
all this. Did he mean by brains and
determination, that the farmers
ought TO have brains enough to set a
price on their own product, and de-
termination strong enough TO get that
price? This must be what he meant,
and yet, / could see nothing dishonor-
able about that. He told the truth
about nay taking a load of wheat TO
market; the prices were all set for me
by others. for what / had TO buy, as
well as what / had to sell, and | was
obliged TO submit to them, but it
had mt struck me that way before, and
now come TO think this matter over
carefully, it did look as though the
farmers were fools, in fact, not much
better than slaves. Why was it SO :
could there ever be any other way I?
None that / could see. except through
combination, and that was just what
the Alliance was fighting. death TO
combinations and trusts, was one of
the corner stones Of our faith surely
the farmers could never countenance
such things. / must dismiss such abb
surd nonsense.
1t was after midnight: / stepped
out on the porch and saw that rain
storm was setting in. / glanced across