Norwich bulletin., 1918-08-30
TIE FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS
WHAT CONSTITUTES REAL NOBILITY?

man out of a thriftless, shiftless, ne'er- do-wee1 tatterdemalion just by shift ing him from a shop to a farm. He can win into the honor grade,-what
 Mir. Purinton means when he says the real aristocracy"-only by earning
 his promotion.
 To say that every farmer is one of
 Natures nobiemen is as absurd as it
 would be to say that every ouadruped is an Arab stallion. Some are,-and some are cats and some are calves and some are slkui1ks! I have known farmers who we're nobler men in every sense of the world than any Hohen- zoliern or Hapsburgh that ever was spawned. And l have known farmers, 1 just as you have. who had so little evil dehce of any sort Of nobility about them that it would take million
 powered magnifying microscope to disclose a trace of it.
 | True nobility, whether on the farm
 or elsewhere, rests on no accident of birth or slant of fortune. It's only
 foundation is that of achievement.
 But don't make the cheap and vul- 1 gar error of confusing achievement with what the world calls success. '' To become rich may be called sue cess" To be elected president may be called "success.' Yet men have be- come rich. anl men have been elected president, without any earthly right to call either outcome an achievement Wealth is sometimes inherited, and sometimes is acquired by fraud. High
 office has sometimes gone to. simple
 mediocrity, whose only merit was thai of temporary political availability Z Men may attain wealth noblv, throuef high service and devoted industry ana ktrained knowledge. Then. and ther only, is it an enlargement Men may win goVernorsft ps@ and praside1cies
 because their tested and proven states
 rnanship has written clear title to suci . advancement. Then, and then only is the winning of an election ai
 achievement
 , Knowledge. labor skill, service art , character combined' says Mir. Purin
 ton, are the essentials for admissinl
 to the honor grade which he stylet
 the "reai aristocracy."
 i. 1 Come, how, fellow farmer: if yo,
 agree with that much.-and you can Q help doing so,-take stock of your ow1 : Qualifications for admission.
 Do you know all that you possibl . can learn from any and all source :. about farming in general and your ow a farm in particular? If you don't ar : you trying to gain that knowledgee Are you accustomed to labor,-per . sistent, insistent and consistent labor :, Are your tools bright with the attri ' tion of use cor rusty from idieness n Are your palms calloused?
 il How about your skill? Are vo II thoroughly up to" the technical nice e ties of your calling? Are you as trul a master of your job as the blacllsmit 'I of his? Or the carpenter of his? And service. Are you farming solel n for your own pocket book, or partl i1 n after imperious home needs are satis e fed in order to serve your communit s and your country?
 We have talked many times abor if character. Without it there is no mo 10 chance of winning into any hont If grade than there is of a woodchuC a flying
 le But with the five Knowledge, labc a skill. service and character combine in the farmer is assuredly great
 honor to himself and his communi than any mere inheritor of titles - wealth, though the one may dwell ,i a baronial castle on some Iordly h n and the other in a wooden hou 'u among his barns and orchards. le THE FARMER.