Jobbers of C - - and those of the backwoods
to draw the new comer into their nets. The demand created by the
continual influx of immigrants had caused a rapid increase in the
price of lands, particularly of wild lands, and the grossest
imposition was often practiced by these people, who made enormous
profits by taking advantage of the ignorance of the new settlers
and of their anxiety to settle themselves at once.
I was continually cautioned by these people against buying a farm
in any other locality than the particular one they themselves
represented as most eligible, and their rivals were always
represented as unprincipled land-jobbers. Finding these accusations
to be mutual, I naturally felt myself constrained to believe both
parties to be alike.
Sometimes I got hold of a quiet farmer, hoping to obtain something
like disinterested advice; but in nine cases out of ten, I am sorry
to say, I found that the rage for speculation and trading in land,
which was so prevalent in all the great thoroughfares, had already
poisoned their minds also, and I could rarely obtain an opinion or
advice which was utterly free from self-interest. They generally had
some lot of land to sell - or, probably, they would like to have a
new comer for a neighbour, in the hope of selling him a span of
horses or some cows at a higher price than they could obtain from
the older settlers. In mentioning this unamiable trait in the
character of the farmers near C - -, I by no means intend to give
it as characteristic of the farmers in general. It is, properly
speaking, a LOCAL vice, produced by the constant influx of strangers
unacquainted with the ways of the country, which tempts the farmers
to take advantage of their ignorance.
STANZAS
Where is religion found? In what bright sphere
Dwells holy love, in majesty serene
Shedding its beams, like planet o'er the scene;
The steady lustre through the varying year
Still glowing with the heavenly rays that flow
In copious streams to soften human woe?
It is not 'mid the busy scenes of life,
Where careworn mortals crowd along the way
That leads to gain - shunning the light of day;
In endless eddies whirl'd, where pain and strife
Distract the soul, and spread the shades of night,
Where love divine should dwell in purest light.
Short-sighted man! - go seek the mountain's brow,
And cast thy raptured eye o'er hill and dale;
The waving woods, the ever-blooming vale,
Shall spread a feast before thee, which till now
Ne'er met thy gaze - obscured by passion's sway;
And Nature's works shall teach thee how to pray.
Or wend thy course along the sounding shore,
Where giant waves resistless onward sweep
To join the awful chorus of the deep -
Curling their snowy manes with deaf'ning roar,
Flinging their foam high o'er the trembling sod,
And thunder forth their mighty song to God!
J.W.D.M.
CHAPTER XIII
THE LAND-JOBBER
Some men, like greedy monsters of the deep,
Still prey upon their kind; - their hungry maws
Engulph their victims like the rav'nous shark
That day and night untiring plies around
The foamy bubbling wake of some great ship;
And when the hapless mariner aloft
Hath lost his hold, and down he falls
Amidst the gurgling waters on her lee,
Then, quick as thought, the ruthless felon-jaws
Close on his form; - the sea is stain'd with blood -
One sharp wild shriek is heard - and all is still!
The lion, tiger, alligator, shark -
The wily fox, the bright enamelled snake -
All seek their prey by force or stratagem;
But when - their hunger sated - languor creeps
Around their frames, they quickly sink to rest.
Not so with man - HE never hath enough;
He feeds on all alike; and, wild or tame,
He's but a cannibal. He burns, destroys,
And scatters death to sate his morbid lust
For empty fame. But when the love of gain
Hath struck its roots in his vile, sordid heart, -
Each gen'rous impulse chill'd, - like vampire, now,
He sucks the life-blood of his friends or foes
Until he viler grows than savage beast.
And when, at length, stretch'd on his bed of death,
And powerless, friendless, o'er his clammy brow
The dark'ning shades descend, strong to the last
His avarice lives; and while he feebly plucks
His wretched coverlet, he gasps for breath,
And thinks he gathers gold!
J.W.D.M.
I had a letter of introduction to a gentleman of large property, at
C - -, who, knowing that I wished to purchase a farm, very kindly
drove me out to several lots of land in the immediate neighbourhood.
He showed me seven or eight very eligible lots of cleared land, some
of them with good houses and orchards; but somehow or other, on
inquiry, I found they all belonged to himself, and, moreover, the
prices were beyond my limited means. For one farm he asked 1000
pounds; for another, 1500 pounds, and so on. After inquiring in
other quarters, I saw I had no chance of getting a farm in that
neighbourhood for the price I could afford to pay down, which was
only about 300 pounds. After satisfying myself as to this fact, I
thought it the wiser course at once to undeceive my very obliging
friend, whose attentions were obviously nicely adjusted to the
estimate he had formed in his own mind of my pecuniary resources.
On communicating this discouraging fact, my friend's countenance
instantly assumed a cold and stony expression, and I almost expected
that he would have stopped his horses and set me down, to walk with
other poor men. As may well be supposed, I was never afterwards
honoured with a seat in his carriage.
