Bloomington herald. [volume] (Bloomington, I. T. [Iowa]) 1840-1849, 1841-03-19
BLOOMINGTON, T, FRIDAY, 10,

! deem those avocations the easiest method, ia
popular parlance, Of "getting living!" Are
| sssya the inducements which have led educa-
tcss and intelligent men to abandon professions
which are the almost exclusive avenues to
| honor and distinction, for the rustic avocations
! of the farm! Ianswer Indignantly, no! They
| have preferred usefulness to fame. To make
| two blades Of grass, or two spears Of grain
| grow where but one grew before, has been pro-
nounced an achievement beyond that Of con-
| querors-and so it is. The warrior desolates
| the earth and fills it with wo, the agriculturist
| whose object ii is to improve aud. advance his
calling, increases its fertility. and thus multi
| plies the sources of comfort and subsistence TO
his fellow men. He clothes the needy, and
gives bread to the hungry, by rendering these
things abundant and accessible. Every man
who tertllZes one barren spot Of earth, who
reclalms one unwholesome swamp, or who
discovers one improved process for cultivating
the earth or increasing It's products, has render
ed direct, tangible, and important benefit to
his fellow men. He has not lived in vain, for
he has rende ed himself useful. He is phi
lanthropist.
Lord Townsend, who received the appelIa-
ton Of Turnep Townsend from the wits of a
llcentious Court for having introduced the cul-
ture Of that useful vegetable Into England, has
conferred a more lasting benefit on his coun-
try than all the popinjays who have spread
their butterfly wings in the sunshine Of court,
from the days Of William the Conqueror to
those of Queen Victoria. Was il Doctor John
son who remarked of some one sneerngly,
that his conversation savored of bullocks!
let the world would have been better off with
out Johnson, than without a Colling or a
Blackwell! Every generation produces its
literary great, but not every generation or eve
ny age produces men capable of originating
great and signal Improvements in those lmpor-
,ant departments of human industry which give
subsistence to millions. Why should the
breeder be sneercd at! Is not the artist adj
mired and caressed Aud what is the bree-
Ger but an artist in The great studio of nature!
The one chisels the shapeless marble into
forms Of beauty; the other moulds flesh and
blood, and gives beauty and value to the I'M
slightly aud worthless. Is the latter pursuit
then unworthy of gentleman and man Of TASTE !!
Is he who strives to beautiiy and adorn this
fair world, instead Of gallery or palace
he who abors to restore animated nature to
her forms Of primal beauty, engaged in vulgar
Or tas,eless pursuit! 1t strikes M on the
contrary that no occupation is more congenlal
TO "a pure and elevated taste. No man more
than the agriculturist has constantly presented
before him images ofinward and outward beau
ty. Books and the treasures of art are as &C
cessible to him as to others; nature and his
fellow man wear for him their love!iest aspect.
| The merchant is brought constantly in coils
ion with venality and avarice; the politician
with sefshness and ambition, and both learn
TO disesteem their fellow men. The physi-
elan spends his life amid ulcerous sores, the
pangs and the meanings of decayng humanity,
and nature must ever wear to him the sspect
of great charuel house. The lawyer is called
upon to probe The yet darker ulcers of the soul.
His eye constantly rests upon guilt, and his
ear must drink in its polluted tale. Envy.
malice, hate, avarice, and all the blacker pas
sions, assuming more speclous names, claim
him as their champion. Ii he resist, as some
have nobly resisted, he must yet meet and COM
bat them; he must live in their polluted at
mosphere; he must feel that he lives on and
out of the contention Of his fellow men. the
occupation of the agriculturst does mol of itself
necessarily bring him i'll contact, or but slight
", with mans moral or physical ibfirmitles.
| The world is not to him great ''whited sep
| uIchre.'' Its sunny smile is not mask hiding
the features Of vice and wo. A demon scowis
not forth on him from beneath every flower that
throws beauty and perfume over the path OF
| life. He rejoceS that he IS mamie leels
fraternal love for the great brotherhood OF
/ man.
And shall the agriculiurist "look up 10 men
who, if not his interiors, are in no respect bis
superiors shall his sons fee away into 9TH
er occupations that "they may be gentlemen =
A better DAY, trust. is dawning. The time
will soon come, if it has not now come, when
no talents however great, and no education
however finished, will be supposed to te
.,hrown away when devoted to The improve
ment Of agriculture. Let our agricul'urists
assert the dignity of their calling, and who
dare gainsay it 7! They are, and ever must be-
the most numerous and powerful caste in this
great Republic. They can make that powe!
| felt whenever an occasion demands 1t. And
has every one who reads this, contributed his
individual efforts during the past year,to asser!
shat dignity-to effect - the moral and socla!
elevation Of mis- calling?" lfnot, the balance
of 1910 is agaus. him! Let ls4l "re,rieve''
the s. error. II. .. W.
CorIandville, N. Y, Dec. 1910.
Power OF MEMoRY.-John Van Muller, q
| native of Switzerland. and author of history