ABSTRACT
Mark Twain's treatment of farm newspapers did not only lampoon their editors. In the final paragraph of the essay, Twain also poked fun at their readers. He had been severely rebuked by the farm newspaper's regular editor for knowing nothing about farming and thereby making the paper ridiculous in the eyes of its rural audience. Twain responded that his issue had greatly increased the paper's circulation, and it had increased it among non-country people. Since townspeople and city people knew nothing about farming, they eagerly bought a paper that made sensational claims and gave confident advice, whether the advice was good or not. It is not clear what Twain meant by "a better class of readers." Was he calling country people inferior to townspeople? Or was he jesting that gullible readers in towns and cities were more desirable because they would buy the product he had produced? In either case, Twain recognized that the readers of one's farm newspaper were as important a consideration as the editor and the content.
