The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-02-27
BILL NYR is FEELING SAD.
Finds That His Bank Has Disap-
peared.
Has $500 Deposit is OnEy q Mpth-He
Lakes Farming Even If the Fdrmer
Does Haze O. Hard Time.

- 0OSN4 y 49, Gel
once more 1 am On my native heath
n take up the burden of life on the
farm where I laid it down when Isailed
for the Old World.
Whist has been done since went
away7
Nothingl
at this writing the tariff question
has about tn same appearance that it
a eight years ego. I return to this
country sad and depressed. When l
got off the boat, having borrowed
money to pay 66t per cent. duty on
articles which if 1 had been smart /
would have smuggled in, I hurried to
my bank to get $500 to go back to the
farm with.
What wRs my surprise and indigna-
tion to find in the place of the bank a
nice new book and stationery store.
And what can l do for youG" asked
an uroane man with disheveled whis
kers, coming forward.
You might tell me where the Farm
ers' and Swappers' bank has gone,"
said |, with some warmth. when l
leave a bank on a certain corner and
tell it to stay there till I come back, 1
AN not pleased to find when 1 return
that it has taken advantage of my ab-
sence to go out and see the town"
THE Farmers and Swappers' bank"
said the man, "hopes to resume very
soon, but of course at present it is closed
until it IA realize on it's collateral"
hustled around and found that the
collateral was a lot of paper showing
that Mr.. Chow Chow, the grocer, had
Endorsed for old man Stiff, the en-
balmer, and old man Stiff, the en-
baImer, had Endorsed for old man
Chow Chow, the grocer, in order to
borrow Of the bank $50, 900 deposited
there by old man Bennett, the farmer,
and old man Pieplant, the farmer. It
vas the old story. The business men
had Endorsed for each other in order to
borrow the farmers deposits, and the
lawyers were now taking what was
left in payment for advising them how
to do it.
I have been farming it now for two
years on my place, and I can say Of a
truth I have no desire to turn back. 1t
is a healthful and honest life, for when
l say that l have been as upright as
my farm I am saying nothing that I
cannot prove.
When a neighbours farm that is
situated farther up the mountain than
mine has slipped down in the night, I
have returned it to him on the follow
ing day. Stock that has fallen out of
other farms above me and into my
farm has been returned without loss or
delay. Even milk COWS that have
dropped into my inclosure in that way
have only been MIXED in order to pre-,
serve their health.
We make our money by hard knocks
and we are 80 situated that we cannot
get together and form trusts for our
own protection. We are the only clses
of people that don't raise a riot or
throw bombs when we are imposed
upon, and yet when a savings bank
busts, if you will analyze the cause,
you will find that the farmers money
has been loaned on rotten security in
order that other professions and other
branches Of trade may have the capital
to gamble with on the price Of our
wheat.
That is why the farmer will here
after put his money in an old sock in
a hollow tree. Do you blame hint
Why do you ask me for my confidence
and beg me to put my money into cir
culation and help the country when 1
return from a foreign strand to find
my savings gone and a book store
where my bank was in Octoberi
Last summer my boy Henry was
home from Yale College, having been
suspended for something or other. 1t
seems that the chair of Greek history
was offered 30 a man with a good edu-
cation along in April, but before he &C.
copied it Henry put a bent pin in it
and was tried for the offense, He
would have come out all right, too, for
he is very solid with the faculty, but
just about that time he made a wrong
tackle at a football game and was sus-
pended, but has returned now and has
been reinEtated in the college.
But while he was at home during
the summer he explained to me the
situation of the country, and the tariff,
and the monetary question. He said
that confidence wa all that was needed
and wound up by getting $85 worth of