printed tissue guard copy: “Red-cheeked pippins that have made the mouths of countless youngsters water”

this photograph reproduced as a photogravure in Camera Notes: October, 1901

Essay: The Farmer

“THE farmer is a man who raises things-the golden wheat, the red-cheeked pippins that have made the mouths of countless youngsters water, and the great turkey gobbler that makes his appearance at Christmas time, along with the cranberry sauce and celery. The farmer, in short, is the feller that furnishes the stuff to keep the city going-the food, and fodder, and long, lank farmer boys.
The farmer is a man who knows how it looks early in the morning, who has heard the little mysterious sounds that Nature makes when she gets out of her green bed and scares the chickens off the roost, and yells up the back stairs:
“George it’s milkin’ time!”
The farmer is a man who can look out of his back window without seeing a line of fire-escapes littered with the family wash, and who isn’t kept awake all night by his neighbor’s phonograph. He is a man who can go to sleep without rocking and wake up without an eye-opener. The farmer is a man who lives in Nature’s backyard, who knows the kindly touch of the warm earth, and whittles and thinks, and isn’t fretted to death by stiff collars and conventions. He knows a little about God and a good deal about men and horses and trees; he knows how it feels to be tired and also the balm of rest and the peace and quiet of Nature’s uncrowded way; he knows life as a reality, and his mission is to plant things and see them grow.”