n's note.

Lucien has pigs, and cows, and sheep, and chickens, and turkeys, and
horses. He raises potatoes and beans, and corn, and wheat, and garden
stuff, and fruit. He buys his groceries and clothing and tobacco.
Reuben buys everything. At the close of the year Lucien puts from $100
to $300 in the bank or takes a trip to Washington. Reuben does well if
he come out even. Lucien does not fret; Reuben grumbles.

The picture is true to life. It has been enacted and re-enacted in
every one of the older communities of the United States.

It has always seemed to the writer, however, that the author of this
suggestive story left out two important personages. They were Sarah,
the wife of Reuben, and Mary, the wife of Lucien. Sarah liked to make
tatting and to go to pink teas. Mary preferred to raise flowers and
fluffy little chickens. Nothing is to be said for or against the taste
of either. Each has a right to her preference, but their point of view
cannot be left out of the problem when a young man is considering his
future occupation.

It has been said, and probably with considerable truth, that most
congressmen would not hang around Washington if it were not for their
wives.

No one must mistake this story as an attempt to compare harness making
with farming, much less to compare living in the city with life in the
open country.

What it does is to compare the struggle and the development of the man
who goes into business for himself with the man who accepts employment
at wages.

Because of less responsibility and less sacrifices at the beginning,
the tendency is for young men to work for wages rather than to engage
in business for themselves. This is becoming more and more true as
industrial methods make it more and more difficult for the young man
to command the requisite capital.

The man who works for wages usually has the larger income and appears
the most prosperous during the earlier years as compared with his
brother who enters business. The business man, however, who, while
young, economizes and invests his savings in his business gradually
outstrips his wage-earning brother. During later life he is able to
enjoy the fruits of his earlier economy and investments, while failing
powers and keen competition of younger and better trained men restrict
the opportunities of the wage earner, who has generally spent his
wages in better living, or at least in more outward show.

This is well shown by the fact t