The front page of the Argus carries a screed by a farmer that begins: I am a farmer, the son of a farmer, the father of farmers. I have been all my days scratching a poor man’s back in an effort to make a living off my farm. My form is bent, my hands are hard, and my eyes dim.

The farmer’s name seems to be Sol. (Soloman? There is a period at the end) Putnam and it looks like this piece was taken from Belford Magazine, whatever that was. My man Sol. goes on to rant about taxes and politicians. I like this piece because it really isn’t all that different from now: a) newspapers taking bits from other periodicals, b) farmers getting screwed, c) people bitching about taxes. I hope that in the afterlife this guy heard the “And God Made a Farmer” bit. From his writings, he sounds like he may have beat your ass if you pulled the “and God made a farmer” shit on him, but you never know.

In other news:

• A 5.5 pound eel was pulled out of a lake in Dexter
• Fred Schill’s horse was choked by its halter
• Simon Winslow broke his arm when a horse kicked him
• The new first ward school in Ypsi is rapidly going up
• Mr. Nordman was seen in the vicinity of North Lake (That’s all it says. It would be wonderful if you folks could Tweet things like: TeacherPatti was seen in the vicinity and then in like 125 years some asshole on a computer will be like, “Who the hell cares that some TeacherPatti broad was seen in the vicinity and they will laugh and laugh and laugh as they load their jet packs and fly around)
• Henry Colum is reported to be very low
• Prof Blodget will remain at Saline and “wield the birch”
• Hell yes! The paper as a whole denounced the republican party, asking why a corporation should not be taxed as a poor farmer is. Nothing really changes.