Band books

His wife had died three years before, and a year
later, he had lost his farm through an imperfect title. Understanding
machinery and being a fair carpenter, he then came to the city, with
$200 in his pocket, joined the Carpenter's Union, and tried to make a
living at that trade. Between dull business, lock-outs, tie-ups, and
strikes, he was reduced to fifty cents, and owed three dollars for room
rent. He was in dead earnest when he threw his union card on my table
and said:--
"I would rather work for fifty cents a day on a farm than take my
chances for six times as much in the union."
This was the sort of man I wanted: one who had tried other things and
was glad of a chance to return to the land. Thompson said that after he
had spent one lonesome year in the city, he had married a sensible woman
of forty, who was now out at service on account of his hard luck. He
also told of a husky son of two-and-twenty who was at work on a farm
within fifty miles of the city. I liked the man from the first, for he
seemed direct and earnest.


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