The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-02-04

Il bleve to God, paw, he's 1uding at
the sopI'
We are having rather a quiet but very
delightful winter here, with now and
then a frosty night to purify the air and
make life worth living. In the crisp
dawn l hear the deep mouthed baying
of the hound and faraway, too, the
deep mouthed husbandman giving
tongue to the false joys of his own i'm
proved apple jack.
Some bitter complaints are made and
suits brought against the Southern rail
way lately for delay and incompetency
IN shipping goods and a general failure
to accomplish the objects for which it
was created. Perishable gods are in
Jured, and OF er goods are eaten by the
trainhands. F3r my own part, I have
suffered very little, as [ do not ship
anything but the New York papers
over the road. In December, however,
[ had a carload of manure for my farm
shipped from Asheville to Arden, ten
miles, and yet when the a reached
ma the goods had spoiled. This is the
first time I have said a word about it.
and l hate to do 80 now, but I want to
be just as and impartial with this
road as l would if 1 paid my fare over
it.
Much ado has been made over the
vestibule train on this line, which was
to practically annihiIate time and place
the roses and pomegranates of Florida
and Louisiana right in the front yard
of New York, but the train is really a
week or two slower than it was ere it
had been vestibuled.
The political situation here at the
present time is extremely interesting,
and some criticise Congress while
others criticise the President. Crit
clsing Congress is n of the most I'M
satisfactory methods of passing the
time that I can imagine. A criticism
that has to be divided up among 800 or
400 men who are not of a sensitive ma
ture is like trying to purify Tammany
Hall by burning a rag.
Some think that the President should
not go hunting ducks when he has a
chance to insult the British, regarding
the latter as far greater sport to the
thinking mind than the former, but of
course l have my own ideas about
that. Others make still more invid-
ious remarks. One man the other day
raked up a lot of old and forgotten talk
about the Presidents former term,
etc.
why" says he, when the Presi
dent got married, he lit out without a
word, only that he ordered his Secre
tary not to forward any engrossed
bills to him during his honeymoon.
Think of that!'
Why, hang it, I'm no partisan, Of
course, but I can be jhst and fair, I
hope. I'd only ask the President to do
as anybody else would do. Why, when
1 was married, I left the same word,
and also in the order / included all
other bills of every kind whatsoever,
and yet there was not a word said
about it in the papers.
If l were President-which lam not,
and for which l thank a kindly dis
posed and farseeing people-but if l
had been President seven or eight years
and enjoyed it and looked forward to
a peaceful rest, beyond the reach of
the waves of political jealousy and in
trigue, and had a conscience with the
bark still on it and had a house and a
lot all paid for, 1 would so lay out my
programme that I might close my term
of Office with a whole skin, a bright,
cheerful liver and a few gastric facili-
ties for future use rather than to go
from the White House to the over
crowded asylum OIL the patriots grave.
Observation will convince the most
skeptical that a patriots grave is just
as hard to get out of as any other
grave.
1t is for that reason, perhaps, that I
am essentially a man of peace. Imade
the same remark in Scotland to the
Misses Montieth and their father, the
Earl of Moontooth, at whose house I
took my meals while in that beautiful
country.
am a practical man, having been
the first one in the South to go into the
dairy business after growing tomtits
from birdseed, and so Iscanno5 but de-
plore anything that looks like a 1t
is said that our navy has actually out
lived it's usefulness while being con-
structed and that it will take 265 years,