10 Conservative *
HATRED OF THE RICH.
BY ItODBllT W. WELCH.
An hour's lialt in Ogunquit by a
coaching party , while the village
blacksmith overhauled the feet of the
leaders of the four-in-hand , furnished
the occasion for an interesting and in
structive talk by Mr. Silas Larrabec.
"Pooty high-toned folks , them is , "
remarked Deacon Busbee as the coach
ing party disappeared down the road
toward York Beach. ' ' What do you
jcdgo them four bosses and the ker-
ridge and harness is wutli ? "
"About $3,000 , " promptly answered
Glim Bascom , "about $3,000 or$3-
500. ' '
"Must be rich or'n I be , " mused the
Deacon. "I guess they wouldn't go
round with no $3,500 outfits if they
had to earn their livin's like I do. I
tell yo , Glim , they's something wrong
in the world when folks goes round
the country in sich style as that ,
while them that's jest as good as they
be has to ride behind crowbaits like
mine , pooty nigh shuck to pieces in
their old farm wagons. Why should
them folks have everything they
want and folks like me have pooty
nigh nothin' , and doggone little of
that ? "
"Hanged if I can answer that
conundrum , " Mr. Bascom replied.
"Best tiling you can do is to ask
Uncle Si. Maybe he can tell you. "
"Well , Silas , "demanded the Deacon ,
turning to Mr. Larraboe , "what's
your idccs on the subject ? "
"S'posclask a question , Deacon , "
said Mr. Larrabce. ' ' Is they any reason
on airth why you should be the
owner of a coach and four red hosses ,
with gold-plated harnesses ? You're
goin' on sixty-two year old ; been
workin' over senco you was eighteen.
What do you figure up you've earned
in all that time ? I jedgc $20 a month
and board would bo a pooty liberal
estimate that would bo $344 a year ,
allowing the victuals you've ct up
was worth $2 a week. You'd have a
nice time , wouldn't ye , supportin' a
team like that ?
"I'm terrible sorry the spirit
of envy has ketched hold of
you , deacon. Youain't got no
right to complain of the bed you're
slecpin' on ; you made it yourself.
You had good schoolin' chances , but
you wasn't so pious as you bo now ,
and , accordin' to my recollection , you
never got much higher than the tail
of your class in nothin' . You had a
chance when you got out of school to
go up to Boston and go into business ,
but yoxi wouldn't go away and leave
Sophrony Hath. You jest settled down
on that little sand patch your father
guv yo off the corner of his farm.
You've managed to keep alive , and
that's about all.
"Now , why on airth should you
think you ought to be able to keep
four bosses and a coach to drive round
in ? Ain't that old crowbait and farm
wagon jest about your si/,0 ? I'm sorry
ry for you , deacon ; I wish you was
wuth a million dollars * so's you could
have everything nice you wanted , but
I can't see that nobody has done you
no injestice , without it is your old
friend Deacon Busbee. You might
not be wuth a million dollars if you'd
made the most of the opportunities
that was guv you , but the chances is
you'd be consid'ablo ahead of whore
you be now.
" As I said in a little talk I made a
few weeks ago to the Philomathcan
society of East Ogunpuit , success in
life don't always come to them that
desarves it. On the "other hand , a
man has got himself to blame if ,
after vegetatin' on a little Ogunquit
farm nigh onto half a century , ho
can't show no assets wuth speakin'
of.
"It ain't very often you see a fel
ler ketched by the back of the neck ,
drug out into the public areny and
crowned with success agin his will.
They's lots of truth in a little piece
I used to speak in school. It goes
something like this :
They guv nio advice and counsel in store ,
Praised me and honored me more and more ,
Said that I only should wait for awhile ,
Promised their patronage too with a smile.
But with all their kindness nnd considera
tion ,
I sartainly would have died of starvation ,
Had they not come an excellunt man ,
Who kindly to help me bravely began.
Good feller , lie guv me the food that I efc ,
His kindness and'caro I shan't never forget ,
But I can't embrace him though other folks
can ,
I am myself that excellunt man.
' ' You never helped yourself much ,
deacon. You may have had the mak-
in's of a big man in you nobody
knows. Yon can't blame yourself for
not bein' a big man , but before you
do sccli an awful sight of complainin'
you ought to hire somebody to kick
you over to Bald Head Gliff and back
about sixteen times.
Honestly Acquired.
"I don't know nothin' about them
folks that rid down the road jest now
behind them four red hosses , but I
don't believe they stole the hosses
and wagon. I do believe that some
body earned the money to pay for that
outfit in a way you wouldn't have
hesitated to travel if you'd knowed
enough. It don't foiler that anybody
that's got a bettpr boss than yourn is
a boss thief. The chances is pooty
strong in favor of the theory that
back of that 'ere outfit that has roused
your angry passions so , is a man that ,
like you , was born humble and poor ,
and lias riz by usin' all the talents the
Lord guv him to make the best of
everything that has come his wziy.
' ' If you was to ask mo , deacon , what I
thought was the wust thing our re
public has to contend with , the most
threatenin' tiling that hovers over the
people of Ameriky , I would toll you
it wus jest the sperit and the dispcr-
sition you've showed in talkin' about
that 'ere coach and them four red
hosses hatred of them that has
things by them that hasn't.
' ' A man ought to be ashamed of
himself for lettin' any sech foolin'
take root in his soul. Ho ought to
chase it away , club it off the minit it
comes anywhere nigh him. Some
idees , when they git into a man's
head , boosts him iip , makes him three
or four sizes bigger than ho was be- j
f ore ; but this one don't. Jest as soon i
as you begin to hate folks because j'P
they have money and things that
money buys , jest so soon you begin to
squizy.lo up. They's nothin' like it
for makin' a man little ; spiles him
through and through.
"Why should folks that ain't smart
enough to get ahead none hate folks
that's got splendid houses , steam
yachts , fine hosses , and kerridges , bet
ter clothes than Solomon had , and all
the money they want to spend ?
Politics.
' ' Why is it , for example , that when
thoy's a presidential election nowa
days , you've always got to count a
pooty big vote for somebody supposed
to represent the miserable idee that
the rich has got something out of the
world that doesn't belong to 'em ?
"Why is it that whenever a politi
cal question comes before the people
of Ameriky thoy's thousands thatjest
as soon as they find out which side of
the fence the wealth and intelligence
of the country stands , hustles over to
the other side like they was chased by
a lot of wild-oypd , snortin' Durham
bulls ?
"Did you ever Jiear of a strike that
these same folks didn't say was a
fight between' downtrodden labor' and
'soulless capital ? ' You'd think to
hear these folks talk that every man
that built a mill and put hands to
work in it ought to be cut into four
pieces and then b'iled in goose
grease.
"A feller up to Wells says to me
only yesterday , speakin' about that
'ore steel strike , 'They had to strike
or that gang of , robbers that Morgan
is the head of , would have crushed
'em into the airth. Devilish cut
throats , they ought every one of 'em
to bo tuk out into the Atlantic Ocean
and fed to cod and haddick. '
' ' ' How do you know , ' says I , ' that
these gentlemen is robbers ? '
' "Because' , says ho , 'they wouldn't
bo so rich if they wasn't robbers. '
"Ain't that logercal , though ! If I
had a hen that couldn't reason no bet
ter than that I'd bo afeard to eat the
eggs she laid. If I've heard that pro-