The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1904-11-15
The Farmer as a Buyer.

O'CLOCK IN ln0 mOTuluS, TSduS Ills pa
per on the train and slams up his
roll-top desk, and pokes his nose in 1t,
like a pig roofing in a trough, I'LL
lunch time. Then he goes out TO
lunch; that takes him two mortal
hours, and by the time he gets back
he has to begin figuring on catching
the four forty-five train. He buys a
wad of penny papers as he skips
across town, and reads them by head
lines, shedding the sheets as he speeds
along. BY the time he is five min
utes from home he has nothing to
read, and he glares at the car-advertlS-
ing till he hates all the advertisers
and looks at his watch for diversion.
At home if he reads he reads book,
and rarely magazine.
His Wife-like most American wives
keeps the home, the culture and the
religion of the family in her name.
She takes a bunch of magazines and
keeps them strewn obviously around
on the reading table of the fussy room
they call the library as Maggie Muir
ply maintained her cabinet organ;
"to give the place a tone" But she
and her husband and the family have
a world of things to do and see things
with. Rent is high, and service is
high and groceries is high, and the
standard of living is generally high,
and the town man has to keep up ap-
pearances. He is a spender, but other
peoples Injuries are his necessities,
and there is a small margin-and an
extremely small one at that-for those
things not connected with the routine
of life.
The city man and the city mans
wife live in a rut They go to shows,
because if they can't "talk shows
they are considered queer, and they
have to take in the social functions
of their particular crowd or gang.
These things clip their spending mon
ey.
But here comes the case of the farm
err: He and his wife and his daugh-
ter are looking up. They are climb
bers. They are trying every minute
of the day and ever day in the year
to get out of the rut. The things
you see in the farmhouse today will
be absent five years from now The
furniture, the food, the farm imple-
ments- everything about the farm is
in a state of transition. And the
farmer has not merely the desire to
spend money, but he has the money to
spend.
Low prices of cattle and hogs affect
him sometimes, but in the cycle OF
prices through a given number OF
years the stock grower makes money
plenty of money and his sons and
daughters who go to the state uni
versities come home and spend that
money for the things you see adver-
tised in the back of the magazine.
Every year in every county west OF
the Mississippi river at least ten fam
lilies move in from the country to the
county seat to educate the children"
That means that these ten families
are going to buy a new outfit from
kitchen to the front gate. They are
in the market for everything, and the
advertiser who has been appealing
to them during their period of saving
is going to reap the harvest.
For the farmer-unlike the town
man-takes time to read. He reads
his paper clear through, advertise
ments and all So does his wife,
and his child, and the hired girl and
the hired man.
There are long evenings in winter
and rainy days in the spring and fall
when the farmer, having read through
everything con the place." having
ctudied ont all the riddles in the