Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1858-01-29
WHOLE NO. 2676.

FARM LIE T. NtiOOl OF MANHOOD.
The men who have left their mark upon the
ages in which they have lived, have done a
great and noble work for the race. have been,
with few exceptions, men Of physical mould
The foundation Of their greatness and Of their
fame was in the patient training Of their ply
sical powers Such a man was Washington,
and most Of the worthless who were associated
with him in the struggle for our liberties
Such was Clay and Webster, and many Of
their cotcmporaries in our national Senate
Their early days were spent upon the farm,
and the thought Of their declining years were
given TO the improvement and cultivation and
the establishment Of their respective home
stcads. Ashland and Marshfeld will long be
scenes Of pilgrimage 70 the husbandman as
well as the patriot
The whole tendency Of farm life is to devel-
op the body healthily and symmetrically-
The child is not pent up in the narrow back
yard of city-dwelling. nor turned into the
thronged and filthy street to pursue his sports
His eyes open first upon green fields and fra
grant meadows. and his FIRST ioot-fal out Of
doors is upon the matted grass beneath the
shadowy trees Of his rural home He drinks
in health from every breeze, and all the scenes
around him call forth that playfulness which
performs so important an office in our early
training
Aud this leads us to speak of the inauen-
ces Of farm life upon home virtues. No oc-
cupaton can be more favorable to the cutiva-
ton OF those qualities which are the charm of
the domestic circle The farmer is much
more at home than is possible with any other
mon. How many there are ia our cities who
only sec their families at evening, or on the
Sabbath They live for their business, and
this, from it's location, takes them from home
carly and late. How many from this same
cause forsako housekeeping and huddle into
boarding-houses and hotels where the charm
and beauty of the family, as God intended it,
are entirely lost and children fall under a
thousand influences that would never reach
them at home With the best arrangements
wealth can command in the CITY, il is well
nigh impossible to keep children under the
influence of their parents, so that they shall
have distinct family character and bear the
moral as well as physical image Of their pro-
genitors Parental influence is dissipated
amid the varied social influence to which they
are subjected from their earliest days. Then
what pcrplcXities harass the man of business
in the city-his capital often invested in pro-
fitess enterprise, exposed to the depreciation
of dishonest men, betrayed, cheated, and ruin
ed by knaves and bankrupts. From the char
acter Of his business, he has to trust far more
of his available means to the integrity of his
fellows than the cultvator His debts are
often scattered over a wide extent Of terrific
ry. and collections are not only expensive,
but exceedingly uncertain. But his CONNER
cial credit depends upon the uncertainty, and
/ he is often compelled to fall back upon moth
/ ing, a ruined man.
Ninety-fye failures in a hundred. among
business men in the city, tells sad tale OF
the perplexity and sorrow, the corroding
cares and anguish of merchantile life. How
can father. goaded with these anxieties from
the beginning to the end OF the year, do JUS
tice to his children, even if his business al
lowed him to be with them part of the time
He is not in frame of mind to superintend
their education and to perform fathers of.
| fee.
The farmer preserves the family in its in
| tegrity The home has in it that more charm
| ing word, and that more charming thing, the
| frcside, around which parents and children
gather, and whore the bright and cheerful
blaze upon the hearth is but true type of
the flame Of love that glows in every heart
The parents have been drawn together, not
by the sordd motives of wealth, or the am
bilious desire of social display, but for quali-
ties seen in each other. The glory of the
/ fireside to the husband is that the wife is
there and to the wife that he is there who
| is head of the woman, and the band in that
home circle. Here they gather at home morn
/ ing and evening, and at noon. Their board is
always surrounded with the same circle, and
hcre they spend the long winter evenings
ogether.--AmericaR ,Jour Of Education