The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1899-02-03

words to all who are engaged In this
interest, from the chief of editorial de-
partment down to the boy that throws
the morning or evening newspaper in
to your basement window
Encourage mechanics. They will
plumb the pipes, or they will kalso-
mine the ceilings, or they will put
down the carpets, or they will grain
the doors, or. they will fashion the
wardrobe. Be not among those who
never say anything to mechanic ex-
cept to find fault. II he has done a
job we'll tell him it is splendidly done.
The book is we'll bound, the door Is
we'll grained, the chandelier is well
swung, the work is grandly accom-
plished. Be not among those employ
ers who never say anything to their
employees except to swear at them
Do not be afraid you will make that
mechanic so pulled up and arrogant
he will never again want to be seen
with working apron or in shirt sleeves,
fer before the night comes Of that day
when you praise him there Will be
lawsuit brought against him because
he did not finish his work as soon as
he promised it, forgetful Of the fact
that his wife has been sick and two
of his children have died OF scarlet
fever and he has had felon on
finger OF the right hand. Denounced
perhaps because the paint is so very
faint in color, not recognizing the fact
that the mechanic himself has been
cheated out of the right ingredients
and that he did not find out the
trouble in time; or scolded at because
he seems to have famed a horse by
unskilful shoeing, when the horse has
for months had SPAWN or ringbone or
stringhalt. You feel you have the
right to find fault with mechanic
when he does i'll. Do you ever praise
a mechanic when he does we'll?
Encourage the farmers. They come
into your stores, you meet them In the
city markets, you often associate with
them in the summer months. Office
seekers go through the land and they
stand on political platforms, and they
tell the farmers the story about the in
dependent life of farmer, giving fiat
terry where they ought to give sym
pathy. Independent Of what? | was
brought up on a farm, l worked on
farm, l know all about it. l hardly
saw city until l was grown, and l
tell you that there are no class OF peo-
pie in this country who have 1t harder
and who more need your sympathy
than farmers. Independent of what?
OF the curculio that stings the peach
trees? of the rust in the wheat? of the
long rain with the rye down. indie
pendent of the grasshopper? of the
locust? of the army worm? of the po-
tato bug? Independent of the drought
that burns up the harvest? Independ-
ent of the cow with the hollow horn?
or the sheep with the foot rot? or the
net horse with nail in his hoof? In
dependent of the cold that freezes out
the winter grain? Independent OF the
snowbank out of which he must shovel
himself? Independent OF the cold
weather when he stands threshing his
numbed fingers around his body to
keep them from being frosted? indie
pendent of the frozen ears and the
frozen feet? Independent of what?
Fancy farmers who have made their
fortunes in the city and go out in the
country to build houses with all the
modern improvements, and make
farming a luxury, may not need any
solace; but the yeomanry who get
their living out of the soil, and who
that way have to clothe their families
and educate their children, and pay
their taxes and meet the interest on
mortgaged farms-such men find ter
rife struggle | demand that office
seekers and politicians fold up their
gaseous and imbecile speeches about
the independent life of farmer, and
substitute some word of comfort drawn
from the fact that they are free from
city conventionalities and city epidem-
les and city temptations. My most Wv
id remembrance of boyhood is of my
father coming in on a very hot day
from the harvest field, and, seating
himself on the doorsill because he was
too faint to get into the house, the |
perspiration streaming from forehead |
and chin, and my mother trying to re-
suscitate him with cup of cold water, |
which he was too faint to hold to his
own lips, while saying to us: Don't be
frightened; there's nothing the matter;
a little tired, that's all; little tired"
Ever since that day, when l hear peo-
pie talking about the independent life
of farmer l see through the sham.
Farmers want not your batteries, out
your sympathies.
Encourage the doctors. You praise
the doctor when he brings you up from
an awful crisis of disease, but do you
praise the doctor when through skillful
treatment of the incipient stages of
disease, he keeps you from sinking
down to the awful crisis? There is a
great deal of cheap and heartless wit
about doctors, but l notice that the
people who get off that wit are the
irst to send for a doctor when there
8 ANYTHING the matter. There are