DISCOURSE ‘jae’

OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH
Paes” .

si

OF
Rea)
Mee es
a a. ars
Ware eos”
opal Peay {

JACOB STRAWN,

THE GREAT AMERICAN FARMER.

——-—_—_—~ 040.

_ DELIVERED IN STRAWN’S HALL, JACKSONVILLE, I1L., SEPTEMBER ahs 1865,
ae

BY
Rey. LM. GLOVER, D. D.,

Pastor ist Presbyterian Church.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE FAMILY.

JACKSONVILLE :
FRANKLIN PRINTING OFFICE.

1865.

DISCOURSE

OCCASIONED BY THE DHATHEL

OF

THE GREAT AMERICAN PARMER.

OO

DELIVERED IN STRAWN’S HALL, JACKSONVILLE, ILL., SEPTEMBER 17, 1865,

Kev. L. M. GLOVER, D., D.,

Pastor ist Presbyterian Church.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE FAMILY.

JACKSONVILLE:
FRANKLIN PRINTING OFFICE.

1865.
ahs

eae

FIGCL a
Of :

DISCOURSE.

Prev. 10: 4.—He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the
hand of the diligent maketh rich.

Jacop Strawn was born May 30, 1800, in Somerset
county, Pennsylvania. When he was seventeen years old
his parents removed to Licking county, Ohio, where he was
married, at the age of nineteen, to Miss Matilda Green,
with whom he lived twelve years. Seven children were
born to them, of whom three sons are living. In the year
1831 he removed to Morgan county, Illinois, where soon
losing his first wife, he married Miss Phebe Gates in July,
1832. By this marriage he had six children, five sons and
one daughter, all of whom survive except one son who was
killed in an ox-mill wheel when five years old. After a life
of almost unexampled activity, and of very unusual success
in amassing a fortune, Mr. Strawn died suddenly, at home,
of a disease to which he had for years been subject, on the
23d of August, 1865.

In consideration of Mr. Strawn’s long residence in our
neighborhood, the marked peculiarities of his character, his
prominence as a,business man within the special sphere of
his activity, and the wonderful achievements of his life, as
well as out of regard to the wishes of his family and their
numerous connections, it has seemed appropriate that a
discourse embodying the main facts and lessons of his
history should be prepared and delivered as soon after his
decease as convenient, in the presence of his fellow citizens,
and in this hall bearing his name and erected as a public
benefit by his munificence. It is believed that there is
important instruction connected with the subject which
should be elicited and employed; it is also believed that

4 FUNERAL DISCOURSE.

there are misconceptions about it which need correction.*
The present occasion is designed to meet the demand
referred to, and the discourse to which your attention is now
invited is meant to give utterance to all that friendship may
claim, and to all that duty may require, a limitation which
should ever be regarded in speaking of the dead, so as at
once to be just to Taran feelings and just to God.

I speak of Jacob Strawn iailen the conviction that he
was nota common man. Let me add that I seldom passed
any time in his company without having the feeling more
deeply impressed upon my mind that he was a great man ;
great, it is true, in a sense peculiar to himself; great im his
kind, and as few men of his kind ever come to be. He
was as distinguished, in the sphere of his operations, as
Napoleon was in his, or Washington in -his, or Clay and
Webster in theirs. He was as truly a prince among agri-
culturists and herdsmen as Frederick was among crowned
heads, or as Bacon was in the realm of mind. His origin
was humble but respectable. His education was limited to
the essential rudiments of knowledge. He was not born to
great possessions, but to the necessities of labor. He was
not advanced to. wealth by rich legacies, or by the accidental
falling into his hands of large estates. His success in
business was no chance result. It did not come about by
favoring circumstances. It was no mere achievement of
good luck. The greatness we ascribe to him was legitimate ;
it was in and of himself, and not in or of fortuities in any
sort or to any degree. It does not often occur that so much
is accomplished by the forces which are within a man; by
sagacity, by self-reliance and energy of will. The problem
of his success in life is not solved by the simple fact that he
was industrious and hard working. Other men, also, are
industrious and hard working, and. yet without success, or
if successful, usually in a far lower degree. If, therefore,
it be said that any one might achieve what he achieved by
doing as he uid, we reply that this cannot be so, unless by
doing as he did is meant not simply toiling as he toiled, but
also planning as he planned. Given, the same amount of

* See Appendix A.

FUNERAL DISCOURSE. eo

muscle, the same power of endurance, and the same zeal of
work that he possessed, and yet you have not necessarily
the man he was, nor do you account for the results of his
lite. But given all these things, and genius besides, and
you have the elements which constituted the’ real Jacob
Strawn, and by virtue of which he becanmte the most distin-
guished farmer of the age. For he was aman of genius in
the proper sense of the word. Genius is not altogether
intellectual in its scope. It is not confined to fields of
literature and works of art. It cannot be appropriated by
poets, philosophers, painters, and sculptors. It belongs also
to such as have a special gift in any department of human
enterprise and effort. There is no reason why labor should
not have its geniuses as well as learning, no reason why the
workshop and the farm should not give birth to representa-
tive men as well as the learned professions. A man of
extraordinary capacity in his sphere, who rises to the first
rank in that sphere, who makes himself a model in it, who
lays down laws and furnishes examples which it is difficult
if not impossible for others to attain unto is a genius. Mr.
Strawn was born of the soil, and for the soil he had a kind
of fihal regard. He took to farming naturally, and from a
love of the employment. It was the bent of hismind. In
early life, doubtless, he dreamed of broad acres and vast
landed estates. But the special inclination of his genius
was toward the handling of cattle. This showed itself when
he was a boy ten years of age. Even then he began to
exercise himself in that way, and determined that it should
constitute the business of his life. And so it did, farming,
as commonly pursued, being only incidental and subsidiary
to the rearing of stock to supply the markets of towns and
cities. The genius of the man led him into extensive
operations in his line. He could not farm it on a small
scale. A farm which one might walk over ina few minutes
would not satisfy him; he must have one which a day’s ride
on horseback would hardly encompass. He must have .
broad fields, and many of them. He must have large tracts
of land in various places for the accommodation of his
stock. These extensive operations involved the employment
2

6 FUNERAL DISCOURSE.

of very many hands. His estates must be covered with
tenants to carry torward the farm work. Numerous persons
must be employed to look after the cattle and drive them
from field to field, and from farm to farm, and then to
market. The oversight of such business required a mind
to comprehend the whole. He who watched the entire
movement of the machinery and kept all a going must pos-
sess great quickness and range of eye, vast power over
details, a wondrous faculty to combine and harmonize and
turn to a single result such numerous minds and hands and
operations. Mr. Strawn was one of a very few men who
unite in themselves the various qualifications for such exten-
sive responsibilities. His thoughts ranged rapidly over the
whole concern. Nothing appertaining to it escaped his no-
mee. Quick, rapid, and exact. no interest suffered. While
attending to what was required at one point he did not allow
neglect at another. — for to a perfect understanding of the
business in which he was engaged he added a thorough
knowledge of men. His judgment of character was very
keen and accurate. He surveyed a stranger with a most
penetrating eye, and seldom erred in the estimate he formed.
He did not like a person who could not look him in the eye ;
he took it as evidencing want of spirit and self-reliance, it
not a consciousness of being unworthy. He rightly judged
that they would be most likely to respect him who gave him
most occasion to respect them. This insight into character
was an indispensable condition of success in the vast busi-
ness which he carried on. It enabled him to adapt men to
places, and thus protect his interests at every point against
liabilities of loss or failure. The vicious he would not
employ, and the untfaithfnl he would dismiss. He soon saw
who would serve his purpose and who would not. The
honest and industrious he encouraged with additional re-
wards, and thus attached them permanently to his interests,
so that they became, in not a few instances, identified for
life with his estates. Surely he who could constantly keep
in view concerns so numerous and varied, who was capable
of such a combination of means and measures suited to a
single purpose, cannot be set down as a common man.

FUNERAL DISCOURSE. (

Let it not be supposed that he carried forward these
ereat farming operations by proxy. He was no gentleman
farmer. Besides superintending, he took part in the hardest
of the work. He showed by example how things were to
be done. Betore infirmities began to thicken upon him
there was not one among all his tenantry whom he did not
surpass in actual labor. He wrought with his own hands
upon the great problems of wealth which engaged him.
Indeed, he was a prodigy of labor. In all weather, by
night and by day, he pushed his business forward. Often
he got his sleep in the saddle. Nothing but impossibilities
were allowed to interfere with the carrying out of his plans.
He scorned dittculties. The greater the difficulty, the
stronger was his purpose, and the higher his ambition to
overcome it. Of privations and hardships he made light.
He ceased from nothing deemed necessary to be done, by
reason ot the heat. or the cold, or the storm. That must
have been an iron trame that was equal to such toil and
exposure, and met them so long without weariness or eX-
haustion. We wonder it had not sooner given way before
that restless and resistless spirit which wrought in it and
by it.

Mr. Strawn’s life is a lesson of industry, promptitude,
and thrift. It shows what power there is in singleness of
devotion to a given object. It illustrates the dignity of
labor. It exemplifies what the Bible says, “The hand of
the diligent maketh rich,” and, ‘t Seest thou a man diligent
in business, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand
before mean men.” Mr. Strawn’s maxims in regard to
the way and means of worldly thritt, which some years ago
found their way into the newspapers, are very pertinent and
valuable, in matter and form reminding us of many of the
wise and pithy sayings of Benjamin Franklin.* Idlers he
could not abide, nor such as neglect their business, and
waste their time going to towns, sitting on street corners,
talking of the news and discussing politics. He held lazi-
ness to be one of the chief vices, and the cause of most of
the poverty and distress in the land and world. He taught

* See Appendix B.

§ FUNERAL DISCOURSE.

that if people would improve in honest labor the time they
squander in sleep and ease and pleasure, and in making and
unmaking public officers, there would be prosperity and
abundance, begging would cease, and that kind of dishon-
esty, too, by which a part of the community live on the other
part. He urged that the way to have money is not to beg,
steal, or borrow it, but to make it by early rising, by
promptly doing what the hand finds to do, by economy in
expenditures according to Poor Richard’s maxim that “a
penny saved is a penny gained.” By living up to such
rules as these he proved their soundness and value; he
made great gains, and those gains were legitimate.

This leads me to speak of the deceased in a more per-
sonal way, as to the principles of action which animated
him, and the general estimate which is to be formed of his
character. If, unfortunately, any entertain the impression
that he was a bad man, it can only be because they have
misjudged or have been misinformed. As to his views, I
am not aware that he held any which were corrupt. On
the contrary, he is believed to have held all the commonly
accepted truths of religion and morality. His habits, too,
were certainly more unexceptionable than is usual among
the opulent. He was not addicted to any vices. In prin-
ciple and habit he was a thorough temperance man, never
using intoxicating liquor in any shape. Nor could he en-
dure men about him who did indulge in strong drink. He
set down all such as trifling fellows, and he had no use for
them. Tobacco, also, he discarded as both unnecessary and
injurious. In moments of high excitement and passion he
would employ expressions that are usually regarded as
profane, but he was not in the proper sense of the word a
profane swearer. He was also remarkably free from the
ostentations of wealth. He exhibited none of the vanity
which riches are adapted to produce. He had too much
good sense to boast of his possessions. In dress and equip-
age he was plain as became the first farmer of the Republic.
And in regard to his business, so far as I have known and
have been able to ascertain by inquiry, he always conducted
it on the strictest principles of uprightness. He had avery

FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 9

high sense of honor in his transactions. His word he held
sacred. His promptitude in meeting promises was pro-
verbial. If he owed a man, he paid him on the very day,
the very hour specified in the agreement, and when men
owed him he required them to come to time in like manner.
It came to be understood that when Jacob Strawn engaged
to do a thing he would do it, whether with or without a
written obligation. Between the making of a bargain and
the sealing of it by legal forms there was with him no
flinching or backing out. His trading, too, was uniformly
honorable. He was fair in buying, and he was fair in sell-
ing. He practiced none of the sly arts of dishonesty. All
deception he despised, and there is no reason to believe he
ever practiced it for the sake of advantage, and there is
as little reason to think it was ever successfully practiced
upon him, for he was too discerning to be caught in that
way. Honesty, he kuew well enough, was a part of his
capital, and yet I do not believe he was honest because
honesty is the best policy, but because he had no disposition
to pursue any other policy. I have yet to hear of a single
instance, during the long period of his residence among us,
in which he has been known and acknowledged to have
departed from that policy, and this is saying much for one
who carried on the extensive operations that he did for so
many years. He amassed a great fortune, but it is believed
he did it by methods entirely unexceptionable. He made
money very fast, but the means employed were legitimate.
It was not by running hazards of speculation; it was not
by any manner of stock gambling, but by the regular opera-
tion of the laws of labor and of commerce; by keen, far-
sighted management, such as seldom failed of the results
intended. Mr. Strawn was not one of those who have a
faculty of making a fortune one day and losing it the next.
He was not of those who risk and break, and whose pros-
perity is a certain presage of ruin. He never failed, and
had no need of laws in aid of bankrupts, for he did his
business on principles that do not expose to unanticipated
pressure or disaster. It deserves also to be told that the
rectitude of his transactions did not have its rule and

3

10 FUNERAL DISCOURSE.

measure in that which is strictly and merely legal. Many
things that are legal are not exactly right according to higher
principles. There are many ways of doing among business
men which, though covered by forms of law, are yet une-
qual and oppressive. Mr. Strawn was remarkably free
from vices of that sort. He was slow to take advantage of
a man’s present necessities, much more of his misfortunes,
to further a selfish end. He took interest for his money,
but not exorbitant interest. He never acquired the reputa-
tion of a hard and uncompromising usurer. Nor did he
incur the odium which, whether justly or unjustly, attaches
to dealing in other men’s paper, commonly called shaving
notes. He was not a jockey of any sort. He did not enrich
himself at the expense of his neighbors. He did not in-
erease his own by unsettling the estates of his fellow men.
Doubtless, he often pressed his claims by legal means, but
he got no one into his power for the sake of fleecing him,
nor was his thrift due to any advantage taken of persons
fallen into straits. Though little disposed to favor such as
had failed of their engagements through laziness or neglect,
he was not guilty of distressmg any whose misfortunes
made an appeal for leniency. It was not by any sort of
rapacity that his great fortune was amassed. His reputation
is not associated with the foreclosing of mortgages, and the
enforcement of executions, regardless of mercy’s and hau-
manity’s claim. Nor was he an oppressor in the matter of
wages. He did not grind the faces ot the poor, He gave
those in his employ what was just and equal, and numerous
persons who served him, and who with their families were
dependent upon him, will doubtless feel that in his death
they have lost a friend. For he was a friend to working
men, a friend in need to the poor and suffering. If any
conceive of him as hard-hearted and unfeeling, they mistake.
Under that rude exterior there beat a heart that was easily
touched by an appeal to sympathy. Rough, bustling, and
stormy as he was at times, at other times he was mild aid
gentle as childhood. The real story of poverty and want
never failed to reach his ear. He did not turn away coldly
from any well authenticated tale of sorrow. I have seen

FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 11

him melted to tears by tender words. I have seen his great
frame convulsed as he listened to touching narrations of
suffering and sorrow. For the soldier and his family he
had warm sympathies, and as his heart prompted aid intheir
dlistresses so his hand did not withhold it. He‘ loved his
country and those who served her in the field. He was
warmly attached to the late President, because he believed
him honest, sincere, unselfish, and earnestly devoted to the
welfare of the nation,

It would not be strange if some thought Mr. Strawn
miserly. If so, they either mistook him or the meaning of
the word. He was doubtless fond of making money, and
the money he made he took good care of. He was no
spendthritt. He wasted nothing in the ways of a thought-
less prodigality. He studied carefulness and economy, but
he was not small and penurious. He was no miser. The
miser is the meanest form of human character. He loves
money for its own sake. He pursues it as an ultimate good.
He hoards it as a source of delight. He values it more
highly than anything he can buy with it. It is to him more
than meat and raiment. It is to him comfort and luxury.
All other comforts and luxuries he denies himself that he
may enjoy his money alone. His happiness is in counting
what he has got and in getting more. With an abundance
at hand, he impoverishes hoth his body and his mind, mak-
ing no provision for social or intellectual enjoyment. To
the calls of sympathy and friendship he gives no heed. To
the appeals of suffering humanity he is deaf. Though
eagerly gathering in the means of good, he gives out nothing
from his full store. With Mr. Strawn it was far from being
so. He held to his money with no such miserly grasp.
What he deemed necessary for himself or family he sup-
plied cheerfully and bountifully. [He stinted none dependent
upon him in the matter of food and raiment. To the poor
and suffering he lent’a helping hand. To immediate objects
of charity he usually gave something. To more general
benevolent causes, such as make their appeal to a decided
religious principle, he was more slow to contribute ; and yet
if an enterprise struch him as good and beneficial in its

i

&

12 FUNERAL DISCOURSE.

tendency he was likely to do something for it, and I never
knew of his contributing even the smallest amount to any
doubtful or bad object, or such as he thought to be so. He
would help build school-houses and meeting-houses, but he
would do nothing in aid of any enterprise intended, or in
his estimation adapted, to corrupt or injure society. In
various conversations with him I urged the importance of
more bountiful giving to acknowledged good causes, for this
reason, among others, that it would add to his enjoyment.
To this he assented, saying he thought it likely. And
afterward, when he made the munificent gift of ten thousand
dollars to the Christian Commission, he is understood to
have admitted that it gave him more pleasure than any other
act of his life. A few days before his death he contributed
again to the same object. A man of miserly spirit makes
no such record as this. Devoted as Mr. Strawn was to the
acquisition of wealth, he condescended to nothing little or
mean. His money he did not keep to look at, but put it
forth and kept it in motion, with an active and enterprising
spirit, in matters of trade and commerce, whereby, while
reaping large advantages himself, he conferred great favors
upon the community. He usually entered on no enterprises
but such as he knew would pay. There is one eminent ex-
ception to that course, namely, the erection of this magnifi-
cent Hall, which he well understood could be remunerative
in no degree commensurate to the vast amount of funds
invested in it. Some speak of it as designed for a monu-
ment to himself. I am sure, however, that he did not
authorize the idea, and yet if he intended it to be so it is to
his praise that he sought to associate his name with a work
not only noble in itself, but so well adapted, by proper man-
agement, to be a public benefit, and that for many years.

It is well known that Mr. Strawn never made any pro-
fessions of piety. He was not a contemner of religion. He
believed it important and necessary.” He looked upon the
Bible as a good book, and of divine authority. He was no
reviler of Christian people, but for those whose lives and
spirit commended them as ‘sincerely and trnly pious he
showed a marked respect ; at the same time, Christians whe

FUNERAL DISCOURSE. 13

act like sinners he despised. It would be useless to deny
and needless to affirm that he had something of a self-
righteous spirit, for that is not so much the fault of particu-
lar persons as of the whole race. But he was not to my
knowledge offensively faulty in that regard. He doubtless
saw some making larger professions than himself who fell
below his own standard of moral action and well doing, and
he may occasionally have drawn the contrast. Yet he was
far from thinking himself perfect, and there is no reason to
presume that he looked for salvation on the ground of
personal merit. He no doubt oftener had a sense of imper-
fection than he expressed it, at the same time it was not
unfrequently that he acknowledged regret for his errors.
It is well known to his friends thas he was often deeply
pained at the remembrance of many things said and done
by him in moments of unrestrained passion. He felt the
difficulty, and yet he knew the importance of curbing that
vehemence of temper which was characteristic of him, and
there is some reason to think he did try to break in upon
the tendency and the habit. It was noticed that toward the
close of his life he was more quiet and subdued than for-
merly. This was doubtless due in part to the infirmities
which kept him more in-doors, and that forced him more to
reflection and to a forecasting of the future. He seemed
latterly to be fully impressed with the near approach of
death, and the thought, so far as entertained and dwelt upon,
could not fail to be salutary. It was also observed that the
last few weeks and months were much spent in reading the
Bible, and it is supposed he perused large portions of that
sacred book, if not the whole of it, during those closing
periods of his life. As we look back upon his course the
error which impresses itself upon us was not that of openly
despising religion, but of practically neglecting it. He
probably intended attention to the subject at some future
and convenient season, yet like others he did not find that
worldly cares and business relaxed in favor of religion
and the pursuit of it, but that the more deeply he became
involved in outward things, the less he was inclined to the
pursuit of those things which are spiritual and eternal.
4 ;

14 FUNERAL DISCOURSE.

This is usually, indeed, necessarily so. And hence the
importance, in every case, of giving heed to paramount
interests, of seeking first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, of securing before all things else an inherit-
ance in the skies. When this is done a man’s spirit is
altogether in harmony with his real welfare, his life is
marked by a proper unity of purpose and effort, and his
whole character is fashioned to the just proportions of an
immortal existence. The qualities which we admire in our
great citizen farmer, as diligence, energy, perseverance, are
- not the less but the more to be admired when animated and
inspired by the lofty principles of religion. And I have
often thought during his life what a grateful thing it would
be to see that restless spirit quieted and subdued by the
love of Jesus; to see that mighty working force, body and
soul, energized by an active and childlike faith in the Re-
deemer; and to see all the capabilities and results of that
wondrous life laid down at the foot of the Cross. That —
would have been such a sight as is not often witnessed.
That would have been a character as much excelling in
moral greatness as the character I have described actually
excels in the elements of natural greatness. That would
have been a piety unusually illustrated with virtues, and
made memorable for ages by the good fruits attending it.
And nothing is more demanded in our day than such conse-
cration of mind, of energies, and of acquisitions to God and
the great objects and interests of the Christian faith. It is
not desirable that there should be less of worldly thrift and-
prosperity, but that these should be properly employed, and
wisely directed to useful ends; that ‘ Holiness to the Lord”
should be written upon all the capacities of man, and upon
all the wealth he honestly acquires. And if we may an-
ticipate a time when this shall take place, how unspeakably
glorious the day will be. Then will the energies and the
activities and gains of this world flow unto him who hath
redeemed the world by the price of his blood, and whose
all things are by the covenant thus sealed and ratified. Then
will men lash themselves and nail whatever they possess to
the Cross; upon it shall be suspended the fruits of their

FUNERAL DISCOURSE. ES

toil and genius, the wealth of labor and the wealth of love;
all the riches of the earth shall pour into Zion; they shall
bring their gold and silver from afar; the kings of Sheba
and Seba shall offer gifts, and every thing beautiful and
precious shall deck the diadem of the despised but exalted
Nazarene. Blessed millennial period, let it soon come!
My friends, how soon death closes the scene of our
earthly existence. ‘The days of our years are threescore
years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be four-
score years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it
is soon cut off and we fly away.” The life we have been
contemplating fell short by several years of the allotted
period. There is now an end of all his earnest thinking,
all his wise planning, and all his vast labors. That restless
heart has ceased to beat. That busy, unquiet life has
reached its goal. All those vast and effective energies are
forever still on earth. In the grave whither he has gone
“there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom,”
neither has he “any more a portion foreyer in anything
that is done under the sun.” And as it is with him so will
it soon be with us. Similar destinies hang over our earthly
existence. In a little while th ere will be anendof all those
worldly plans, interests, and pleasures which now occupy

us. Swiftly and suddenly, as in his case, the messenger of
death may come, and between the warning and the time set
for our departure the period may be exceeding brief. How
serious the thought of making an exchange of worlds, and
of making that exchange upon a hasty and unexpected
requisition of the soul. And how imminent the danger of
receiving the summons before our work is done, of its being
delivered at the very time when we are thinking ourselves
happily and securely fixed for many years, and even when
we seem most essential to our families and friends, and the
circles in which we move. Let us, therefore, watch and be
ready. Let us seek the proper fitness to live that we may
also possess the proper fitness to die, so that whether living
or dying we may be the Lord’s. And let us remember that
the fitness which adapts to the emergencies, both of the
present and the future, life and death, is a yital interest in
the exhaustless merit and the cleansing blood of the adora-
ble Redeemer, to whose love and grace and saving power I
commend you all. Amen.

Appendix.

(A.) Most of the newspaper notices of Mr. Strawn contain many errors.
For instance, it is said that his whole fortune at the time of his settling in
Illinois was five hundred acres of land and fifty cents in silver. He may not
have had much ready money on his arrival, but the fact is that at that time
he was worth from six to eight thousand dollars, certainly a very good outfit
for a new country. His father, though not wealthy, was well off, and gave
his children a respectable start in the world.

Again, the papers report that Mr. Strawn had been in the Legislature of
Illinois as the Representative of his District; also, that he built pretty much
the whole of Jacksonville, (now a snug city of about eight thousand inhabit-
ants), both of which stories are made out of whole cloth. He never held
any Office, and the only part of Jacksonville he built is the Hall which
bears his name, nor did he own any other town property.

The reports about the “snap ” method of getting his wives, and various
other stories concerning his eccentricities, must be taken at a discount.

(B.) Mr. Strawn’s Maxims, published several years since, and designed
to give the secret of his success:

‘““When you wake up do not roll over, but roll owt. It will give you time
to ditch all your sloughs, break them up, harrow them, and sow them with
timothy and red clover. One bushel clover to ten bushels timothy is enough.

“Make your fence high, tight, and strong, so that it will keep cattle and
pigs out. If you have brush, make your lots secure, and keep your hogs
from the cattle, for if the corn is clean they will eat it better than if it is not.

* Be sure to get your hands to bed by seven o’clock; they will rise early
by the force of circumstances.

‘Pay a hand, if he is a poor hand, all you promise him; if he is a good
hand, pay him a little more; it will encourage him to do still better.

‘Always feed your hands as well as you do yourself, for the Lasorine
MEN are the bone and sinew of the world, and oucgHT TO BE WE!L TREATED.

“T am satisfied that getting up early, industry, and regular habits are
the best medicines ever prescribed for health.

“When it comes rainy, bad weather, so that you canuot work out of doors,
cut and split your wood. ;

‘Make your tracks when it rains hard, cleaning your stables, or fixing
something which you would have to stop the plow for and fix in good weather.

‘“‘Make your tracks, fixing your fence or a gate that is off the hinges, or
weatherboarding your barn where the wind has blown off the siding, or
patching the roof of your house or barn. ; ;

“Study your interests closely, and don’t spend any time in electing
PRESIDENTS, SENATORS, and other smaut officers, er talk of hard times
when spending your time in town whittling on store boxes, ete.

“Take your time and make your calculations; don’t do things in a hurry,
but do them at THE RIGHT TIME, and KEEP YOUR MIND AS WELL AS YOUR
bopy EMPLOYED.”

THE END.

~—_

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