The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1860-03-20
WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH YOUR
SONSP


some thoughts in relation to the agriculture! pro-
fession, to which invite the earnest attention of
our readers:
"FARM LIFE, A SCHOOL OF TRUE MANHOOD.
The men who have left their mark upon the ages
in which they have lived, have done great and
noble work for the race, have been with few ex-
ceptiohs, men of noble physical mould The faun-
daton of their greatness and of their fame laid
in the patient training of their physical powers.
Such man was Washington, and most ofthe worth
les who were associated with him in the struggle for
our liberties. Such were Clay and Webster, and
many of their contemporaries IN our national Senate.
Their early days spent the farm and the
thoughts of their declining years were given to the
improvement, and the cultivation, and the estab-
lishment of their respective homesteads. Ashland
and Marshfeld will long be scenes of pilgrimage
! to the husbandman as well the patriot.
"The whole tendency of farm life is to develop
the body hcalthfully and symmctrcally The
child is not pent up in the narrow back yard of
city dwelling, turned into the thronged and
filthy streets to pursue the sports His eyes open
first upon the green fields and fragrant meadows,
and the first football 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 playfuness
which performs important Office in carly
training.
Sothis leads US to speak ofthe influence off farm
life upon the home virtues. No occupation can be
more favorable than the cultivation of those quail
tiles which are the charm of the domestic circle.
The farmer is much more at home than is possible
with any other men. How many are there in our
cities who only see their families at even ing,
Sunday? They live for their business, and this,
from its location, takes them from home early and
late How many from the same cause, forsake
house keeping and bundle into a bordng house
and hotels, where the charm and beauty Of the
family as God instituted it, is entirely lost; and
children fall under a thousand untricndly infu-
ences, that would never touch them at home!
With the best arrangements wealth could command
in the city, it is well hgh impossible to keep chill
dren under the influence Of their parents, that
they shall have distinct family character, and
bear the moral, as they do the physical image of
their progenitors. Parental influence is disspatcd
amid the varied social influences to which they are
subjected from their earliest days. Then what
perplexities harrass the of business in the city
his capital often invested in proftess enterprises,
exposed to the depredations of dishonest men, be-
trayed, cheated and ruined by knaves and bank
rupts. From the very character of his business,
he has to trust far more of his available means to
the integrity of his fellows than the culivator
His debts are often scattered a wide extent
of territory and collections are not only expensive,
but exceedingly uncertain. But this commercial
credit depends upon this uncertainty, and he is
often compelled to fall back upon nothing, ruin
ed man.
"Nincty-fve failures IN hundred, among most
business men in the city, tell sad tale of the per-
plexities and sorrow, the corrodng and
gush of mercantile life. How can father, goaded
with the anxeties, from the beginning to the end
of the year, do justice to his children, even if his
business allowed him to be with them part of the
time? He is not in frame of mind to superin-
tend their education and to perform a fathers
office.
'.1he farm preserves the family in its integrity.
The home has in it that charming word, and that
more charming thing, the freside, around which
parents and children gather, and where the bright
and cheerful blaze upon the hearth is but true
;ype of the fame of of love that glows in every
neart. The parents have been drawn together,
not by sordid motives of wealth. nor the ambitious
lesire of social display, but by the personal quail
lies seen in each other. The glory of the freside
% the husband is that the wife is there; and to the
wife that he is there who is head of the woman,
md the band is that home circle. Here they
gather at morning and evening and at uoon Their
BOARD is always surrounded with the same circle,
md here they spend the long winter evenings
ogether."