Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1874 — Only a Granger. [ARTICLE]

Only a Granger.

Since out Grange was established, Mr. Ring" we * ’ iave opened our eyes. All of us are trying ' co-operation. We work just as hard U 1 keep back the angry words, to be ajwa. careful, considerate and polite, to ki ‘ e P out from our home all the annoyances of life, as we would to keep pigs oat 0 * the parlor and kitchen. We hav, e lectures in the Grange Lodge room, a nd are coming to have quite a liking *» i ear of something besides the rattle of dia h-kettles, scraping the bottom of the meal-bucket or flour-barrel; the creaking of old chairs and everlasting growl, gru nt and grumble to be heard in families where it is nothing but drudge, stint, labor and starve from birth till death, w itli never a full stomach except when visit We are learning to live. Tha. * is what all of us Grangers are doing. W* ' believe in sewing machines, churning nn '-chines, patent flat-irons, musical instnunents, carpets, hooks, papers, pictures, good clothes, reasonable ornamental w ork, nice carriages, good beds, well-ventilated rooms, easy chairs, hours for rest, flowers, pretty chair-covers, napkins, eatin g with a fork, good food, delicacies and the best we can get, the better to enjoy life, be satisfied with our position and give strength to the intellect.

We are learning to think. We are Grangers—only Grangers—but, Mr. Ring, this is beginning to mean business. We have children to educate. Now there is my boy John. When he went in the Grange he was so bashful he hardly dare whisper the Lord’s Prayer, for fear God would hear him. He had a good head and a fine memory. In our debating society he has grown out of his bashfulness and into a manhood that is not nervous or impudent. He is a good reasoner, and at odd times is studying law. That is, the principle of law. In ten years he will be fit to hold any honorable position within his circle of attainments, and will be fit to live and assert his manhood to some purpose—some satisfaction to himself. Look at this farm. It is worth 50 per cent, more than it was before our Grange was started. You can’t sell it for taxes now—my neighbors won’t let you! I won’t let you sell theirs. We will keep the taxes down. We will keep all such men as you—all thieves, defaulters, bounty-brokers, note-shavers, land-steal-ary-grabbers, place-hunters and sly sneaks—no matter what their politics—out of office. We are bound to put a stop to your living in idleness at onr expense ; to have honest men in office and to shorten the list of offices. There is no reason under God’s heaven why a man should work,hard all his life, live poor, wear rags, raise a family of paupers, then die, be laid out under a patched sheet on a narrow hoard, put in a pine coffin and dumped into a hole in the ground, just as you ride by with your mistress, rejoicing in having a mortgage on all he has been an entire lifetime accumulating. It is not simply to .make a candle go further or to buy a pound of soap cheaper that we are Grangers. We wish to make farming respectable; to build ourselves up into a higher manhood, to know that we have* some little interest in the goodness of God; to make our homes beautiful, and to know an muchof men, minds, maxims, laws, principles, life and things in general as you know’! You call us mudsills, swine-feed-ers, plowholders, country jakes and wearers of old clothes. You say we are not well posted. Now, Mr. Ring, there is some truth in what you say. The fault and the remedy are with us. We intend to know more, to dress better, to have better homes to give our children better education to fit them for life. To think more of our babies than of our pigs and horses; to improve our standing as human beings ; to give our wives and children a chance to see the country. You own cars and we intend to ride in them, to pay for the privilege. We wish to go to St. Paul, Boston, Mobile, New Orleans, Texas, San Francisco, New York, all over God’s country. We wish to sail in the ships to Europe and around the world. We intend to see what there is to be seen—to have some of the good things ourselves—to earn money, and save every dollar we can from the collector, that we may buy more watches, books, papers, pianos, carriages, carpets, mirrors, sofas, easy-chairs, and have them in our houses as in yours. Now that your houses are full of nice things, why not give us a chance? Help make life an object and we will help you to live. The more money you make the more you hoard—the more interest you make us pay, the more you rob us. The more we keep still the more you steal, and now, Mr. Ring, by the Eternal, we intend to take care of ourselves; to pay out our own money and to know where it goes to; to give employment to all the artisans and mechanics you* throw out of employment—to save several millions of dollars each year from your bondholders, land-sharks and official pirates, so we can buy fine things for our homes, and have baked potatoes, brook trout for supper, and happy hearts in every day we live. According to a correspondent of the Marietta (Ohio) Register, the body of an infant dying suddenly in that vicipity was followed to the grave by a Maltese cat that had been the child’s pet in life. The animal persisted in remaining beside the burial-place until the last sod was replaced, and then followed the bereaved family back to the house. At night she returned to the burying-ground, and, being followed and watched, was seen to work frantically with all four feet until she had completely leveled the little mound over the grave. Then she went home again; but on the following morning was seized with a fit exactly at the hour of the child’s sudden sickness, and died at the moment corresponding with the instant of the child’s d£ath. A lady who was urging some friends to dinner felt disgusted when her eight-year-old son came in and said: “Mrs. Jones says she can't spare no bread, and Mrs. Fox ain’t to home, so I didn’t get any butter." The friends thought they had better dine elsewhere, and the lady thought so too, but she taught that boy that the way of the transgressor wa3 hard. —Ophelia Rogers, of Montieth, Mich., was killed a few daysago under the following circumstances: While riding in a buggy with her brother, holding a package of powder, he lighted his cigar, and a spark fell on the powder, which exploded, burning her so badly that she died almost immediately. - —*—- To cuke dull times—Apply an advertisement to the afflicted part.