Chapter 23 Economics - 18

As in our colleges, there are a hundred "modern advances"; it is easy to fantasize about them; but there is not always definite progress.The devil invested long ago, and then continued to increase the shares, for which he kept demanding interest until the end.Too often our inventions are pretty toys that simply grab our attention and distract us from serious things.They offer only improved means to an unimproved end, which was already easily reached; like the railroads to Boston, or New York.We are in a hurry to build a magnetic telegraph line from Maine to Texas; but perhaps there is no important telegraph to be sent from Maine to Texas.Just like a man who is eager to talk to a famous deaf woman, he is introduced to her, and the hearing receiver is put in his hand, but he finds that he has nothing to say to her.As if the main problem was to speak quickly, not to speak sensibly.We are eager to build a tunnel under the Atlantic Ocean, so that the old world can be shortened by a few weeks and reach the new world very quickly, but the first news that reaches the soft-skinned ears of the Americans may be Adelaide. Princess Ryder has whooping cough or something.In a word, the man who rides a mile a minute never carries the most important news, he is not an evangelist, and he does not run about eating locusts and wild honey.I wonder if Flying Boy ever carried a grain of corn to the mill.

One guy said to me, "I'm surprised you don't save a little money; you love to travel; you should get in the car and go up to Fitzburgh today and see the world." But I'm smarter than that .I've learned that the fastest travel is on foot.I said to my friend, suppose we try, whoever gets there first.The distance is thirty miles and the fare is nine cents.This is almost a day's wages. I still remember that people who work on this road only get sixty cents a day.Well, I start now on foot, and arrive before evening; and this has been my travels for a week.At that time, you were earning wages, and you would arrive sometime tomorrow. If you found a job by chance, you might arrive tonight.However, instead of going to Fitchburg, you spend most of the day working here.It can be seen from this that even though the railway line goes around the world, I think I will always be ahead of you; as for seeing the world and gaining more experience, then I should completely break up with you.

This is the universal law, which no one has ever surpassed; as for the railway, we may say that it is wide and long.To make all mankind obtain a railway around the world is like digging the surface of the earth.Folks are foolishly convinced that if they go on with the joint venture, and shovel it down like this, the train will get somewhere at last, and it will take very little time and cost nothing; To the railway station, the ticket collector shouted "passengers get on the train!" The smoke was blown in the air, and the steam erupted thickly. Called it "a sad accident," and it was.There is no doubt that those who have earned their fare will be able to ride in the end, that is, as long as they live, but perhaps by then they have lost their cheerfulness and desire to travel.This kind of spending the most precious part of one's life earning money, in order to enjoy a little dubious freedom in the least precious part of time, reminds me of the Englishman who went back to England to go to a poetic To live, he first ran to India to make a fortune.He should immediately live in the dilapidated attic. "What!" cried a million Irishmen from all the shacks of the land, "isn't this railroad we've built a fine thing?" Yes, my country answers, by comparison, It is well, that is, you may do worse; but, as you are my brothers, I wish you would spend your time better than digging.

Before my house was built, I wanted to earn it in an honest and pleasant way. Ten or twelve dollars to cover my extra expenses, I planted something on the two and a half acres of sand beside the house, mainly It's broad beans, and a little bit of potato, corn, peas, and radishes.I have eleven acres in all, mostly pines and hickories, and the price last season was eight dollars and eight-quarters an acre.One farmer said the land was "useless except for squeaky squirrels."I did not fertilize this piece of land, I am not its owner, but a person who lives in a land without owner. I don't want to plant so much land, so I didn't want to hoe all the land at once.While hoeing, I dug up many roots, a few "coads", which I burned for a long time, and this left little circles of uncultivated loam, when the favas grew extravagantly in the summer It is easy to distinguish them.The dead and unmarketable trees behind the house and the floating wood from the lake also supplied part of the rest of my fuel.I had to hire a team of plow horses and hire a day laborer, but I was the one who handled the plow myself.My farm expenses, in tools, seeds, wages, etc., for the first quarter, totaled $14.72.5.Corn seeds are sent by others.Seeds aren't really worth much unless you grow more than you need.I had twelve bushels of beans, eighteen bushels of potatoes, and some peas and king rice.Yellow corn and radishes were planted late and there was no harvest.The income of the farm is all:

Two three four four four yuan Subtract expenses of 14.725 yuan The balance is 8.715 yuan In addition to what I consume and what I still have on hand, it is estimated to be worth about four and a half dollars-the stock on hand has exceeded the need for a little vegetable that I cannot produce myself.From a comprehensive consideration, that is to say, I consider the importance of the human soul and time, although I took up some of my short time for this experiment, no, partly because of its very short time, I am sure I This year's crop is better than Concord's.