Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work
Then the Honorable Erastus Hopkins, quick to catch the lack of sympathy
in the audience, stood up and begged leave to reply to young Forbes.
He said the objection to advertising signs was only a rich man's
aristocratic hobby, and that it could not be indulged in a democratic
community of honest people. His own firm, he said, bought thousands of
bushels of oats from the farmers and converted them into the celebrated
Eagle-Eye Breakfast Food, three packages for a quarter. They sold this
breakfast food to thousands of farmers, to give them health and strength
to harvest another crop of oats. Thus he "benefited the community going
and coming." What! Should he not advertise this mutual-benefit commodity
wherever he pleased, and especially among the farmers? What aristocratic
notion could prevent him? It was a mighty good thing for the farmers to
be reminded, by means of the signs on their barns and fences, of the
things they needed in daily life.
If the young man at Elmhurst would like to be of public service he might
find some better way to do so than by advancing such crazy ideas. But
this, continued the Representative, was a subject of small importance.
What he wished especially to call their attention to was the fact that
he had served the district faithfully as Representative, and deserved
their suffrages for renomination. And then he began to discuss political
questions in general and his own merits in particular, so that Kenneth
and Mr. Watson, disgusted at the way in which the Honorable Erastus had
captured the meeting, left the school-house and indignantly returned to
Elmhurst.
"This man Hopkins," said Mr. Watson, angrily, "is not a gentleman. He's
an impertinent meddler."
"He ruined any good effect my speech might have created," said Kenneth,
gloomily.
"Give it up, my boy," advised the elder man, laying a kindly hand on the
youth's shoulder. "It really isn't worth the struggle."
"But I can't give it up and acknowledge myself beaten," protested
Kenneth, almost ready to weep with disappointment.
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There was once an honest journeyman tailor, by name Labakan, who learned his trade with an excellent master in Alexandria. It could not be said that Labakan was unhandy with the needle; on the contrary, he could make excellent work: moreover, one would have done him injustice to have called him lazy. Nevertheless, his companions knew not what to make of him, for he would often sew for hours together so rapidly that the needle would glow in his hand, and the thread smoke, and that none could equal him.
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