master or foreman is not heard.  But as to that matter of non-payment of wages, the men must live; and here, as elsewhere, the master who omits to pay once will hardly find laborers in future.  The matter would remedy itself elsewhere, and does it not do so here?  This of course is so, and it is not to be understood that labor as a rule is defrauded of its hire.  But the relation of the master and the man admit of such fraud here much more frequently than in England.  In England the laborer who did not get his wages on the Saturday, could not go on for the next week.  To him, under such circumstances, the world would be coming to an end.  But in the Western States the laborer does not live so completely from hand to mouth.  He is rarely paid by the week, is accustomed to give some credit, and, till hard pressed by bad circumstances, generally has something by him.  They do save money, and are thus fattened up to a state which admits of victimization.  I cannot owe money to the little village cobbler who mends my shoes, because he demands and receives his payment when his job is done.  But to my friend in Regent Street I extend my custom on a different system; and when I make my start for continental life I have with him a matter of unsettled business to a considerable extent.  The American laborer is in the condition of the Regent Street bootmaker, excepting in this respect, that he gives his credit under compulsion.  “But does not the law set him right?  Is there no law against debtors?” The laws against debtors are plain enough as they are written down, but seem to be anything but plain when called into action.  They are perfectly understood, and operations are carried on with the express purpose of evading them.  If you proceed against a man, you find that his property is in the hands of some one else.  You work in fact for Jones, who lives in the street next to you; but when you quarrel with Jones about your wages, you find that according to law you have been working for Smith, in another State.  In all countries such dodges are probably practicable.  But men will or will not have recourse to such dodges according to the light in which they are regarded by the community.  In the Western States such dodges do not appear to be regarded as disgraceful.  “It behoves a frontier man to be smart, sir.”

Honesty is the best policy.  That is a doctrine which has been widely preached, and which has recommended itself to many minds as being one of absolute truth.  It is not very ennobling in its sentiment, seeing that it advocates a special virtue, not on the ground that that virtue is in itself a thing beautiful, but on account of the immediate reward which will be its consequence.  Smith is enjoined not to cheat Jones, because he will, in the long run, make more money by dealing with Jones on the square.  This is not teaching of the highest order; but it is teaching well adapted to human circumstances, and has obtained