The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1904-05-12

Is recognized as an honest, noble man
and is enthusiastically endorsed by the
people; but when his underpinning is
faulty his just deserts are meted out to
him with alacrity and he is repudiated.
When [ asserted that shoveIing Stag
is the hottest, hardest work imaginable
| was sincere. L can conceive of moth
ing worse for an American to tackle.
5599 advises me to become a fireman
on lake steamer. Not on your life!
Blessed with common school educa-
tion, and, trust, common sense, lat
least in selecting manual labor to do)
there is no necessity for me or any
other American to tackle such jobs.
And IT [ worked in glass house,
wouldn't that bar me from throwing
stones? Who then would $500 have to
argue with, since no other writer has
come forward? The American born
man of this generation is not phys
lcally able to outwork any other man
on earth, simply because for the past
fifty years our mode Of life has become
too sedentary, and business avocations
are too much pursued by us, to retain
the physical frames and energies OF
our ancestors. IT that is doubted, why
do young men from the cities play out
so soon? When the war opened with
Spain the city boys could scarcely
stand the exposure of weather and
change Of water, coupled with march
ing. The country boy was tougher,
and the reason he doesn't take jobs in
rolling mills for $1.75 per day, but
sticks to the farm at $19 per month, is
to keep his free open air life and good
constitution. The question of money
cannot enter into the farm boys brain
regarding change of scene, or he'd
go to work at $1.25 to $1.5O per day,
wouldn't he? ------------,
Any chump knows that rolling mills
roll red-hot metal, but how is this met
al first formed from a natural state
Does 5599 believe that steel rails are in
natural state when put into the fur
mace? What's the use of heating them
at all if they lie in the ground already
made, even to the name plate of the
manufacturer? While 5599 is creating
some tale of the "Lost City" of 1896 let
him figure out how car wheels are
moulded and if the iron or steel is in
molten state or not. When 1 spoke of
the products of the Steel Trust never
even insinuated that the said trust
confined itself to making rails. 1t has
rolling mills and toundries too, in one
of which anyone can see molten steel
swung in big dippers by crane and
emptied at the proper time and on the
personal order of a man that gets $50
a week for lifting his hand at the pre-
else moment the dipper is to be emp
tied. But $500 doesn't know when an
argument is ended. I've answered his
questions and in doing so I've been
compelled to lose sight of the first
proposition advanced, which is that
trusts are mighty good thing. So if
5599 is agreed that oil magnates like
Mr.. Rockefeller with his muniicent
bequests, Mr.. Enoch Pratt, another oil
man who first gave large library to
any city, Mr.. Andy Carnegie of glori-
GUS deeds, and the estate of Mr.. Jay
Gould of railway fame, are not the
soulless, miserly and "least circum-
spect in their behavior" las 5599 as
serts) class of men, 1 will with the kind
attention of the reader, proceed to
point out more beauties of combined
capital and brains.
Itmay seem big drop to come from
steel products to soda crackers, but
gentlemen of the jury, that's just
where I'm going to drop you. About
a dozen years ago, there were scattered
over every state bakeries which made
the humble soda cracker. Personally,
I'd just as soon eat sawdust, but babies
cry for them and when Old Man Brains,
backed up by Uncle Capital heard that
storekeepers persisted in fiavoring soda
crackers with kerosene oil, Old Man
Brains said it was shame. So capital,
like Barkis, "wuz willin'," and together
they formed plan to "benevolently
assimilate" the little bakeries and have
one head. After completing arrange
ments, ,and with free use of "espion-
age,' they had the little baker boys
all corralled. When every cracker