The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-02-27

That is why farmers sons aspire to
become, b~artenders. My boy Henry
will graduase in June if nothing hap
pens, and will march from the curricu-
lum to the mint julip works in spite of
his mother, for he says that there's
where you find your statesmen now.
There's where the laws are made and
unm&de. He can mix agood beverage
now, for he did so while at home, by
means of which he 8 cured the use of
my horse and buggy during our busy
time.
For " or eight years the tariff
has been used to scare the farmer into
selling his chickens for eight cents and
paying a little extra fer his winter un-
dergnrmonts. For nearly eight years
presidential conventions have talked
one way and Congress the other.
WhyF
Because the members Of a national
convention are net responsible, while
the members of Congress are. Plat
forms are made to secure votes, but
tariff legislation has got to fit every
locality and every Congressional dis
trict. So, as a farmer, l am without
hope in this world on the matter. I
am betting what money I bad left in a
hollow black gum tree when the bank
failed that there are harder times ahead
than 1898 has shown-not harder times
for banks, perhaps, but for people who
want clothes and food.
Those who hope that Congress will
afford relief this year had better return
to their FORCES and their farms and look
to heaven for comfort. With the Dun
try running behind SO, OOO, 0UO per
month and a swelling army of unem-
ployed on every corner, it is evident
that in the last national campaign
those who promised prosperity we're
unable to deliver the goods. Are they
any better prepared to do it now than
they were then3
That's the way Henry and I argued
all summer. When I was In England,
I said to the son Of Charles Dickens,
who is q business man of perhaps 80
years, 1--WE are liable some day to be-
free trade country, they tell me-" 1
said this to make England feel friendly
toward us.
Possibly you may" he said, but
I'll bet you a new chimney pot hat that
England will be a high protection
country before America is for free
trade"
However, I do not care two cents one
way or the other. If it could be settled
and then a law passed that whoever
agitated the question or even hereafter
mentioned the matter should be taken
out behind the barn and shot, I would
vote for that measure. AS it is now, I
don't know what crops to raise next
year, and everybody is unsettled.
Nothing pays dividends any more.
Who is going to win the confidence of
stocking log depositors when there is
no investment, that pRys7 How will
you get me to ransack my hollow gum
tree when railroads are in the hands of
receivers and even the whiskey busi
ness has a great big still in it,
Last year my hens produced, even
at low prices, $1O7 IS worth Of eggs.
This year opens very dull, with a pros
pect of 40 per cent. falling off, so that
there is a lack Of confidence even
among the hens. I have tried in every
way to show them that we r on the
eve of a great revival of trade, but
they look at me askance and refuse to
place their eggs in circulation.
AS 1 write this, another letter from
Henry says that the farmer will be the
first one to reap a benefit from tariff
legislation, and that we must have
more confidence in each other. He in
| closes a note at 80 days which he asks
me to indorse with him to aid in the
purchase of a costume for a masked
ball.
He is a great favorite there where he
il, and I'll bet that the town will seem
dull after he graduates. I tried to gel
him to help US get in our alfalfa last
summer ahead of a big thunder storm,
for he has a big muscle on his arm that
looks like a tumor, and he has a CORFU.
gated stomach like Sandow, the athlete,
who couldn't pay his board, 80 I reck-
oned Henry would be a good hand to
pitch hay into the top of the barn, but
he said he was training and 80 could
not do anything that snot prescribed
for the team.
One evening when he was allowing
his biceps tumor to some girls here at
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