The Smoky Hill and Republican union. [volume] (Junction City, Kan.) 1861-1864, 1863-07-25
Aqritnltural Golunllr.
what will You do with Your Sons

~ 70 iASssft ~
What will You do with Your Sons !?
We find in the {" American Journal
Of Education," some thoughts in rela.
ton to the agricultural profession, to
which we invite the earnest attention of
our readers =:
= OZARK 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 a
few exceptions, men Of noble physical
mould. The foundation Of their great
ness and Of their fame was laid in the
patient training Of their physical pow
crs. Such a man was Washington, and
most Of the worthless who were associa-
ted 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 were
spent upon the farm, and the thoughts
Of their declining years were given to
the improvement, and the cultivation,
and the establishment of their respec.
tive homesteads: Ashland and Marsh
field will long be scenes Of pilgrimag &c
to the husbandman as well as the pa
triot.
&c The whole tendency Of farm life is
to develop the body BEAUTIFULLY and
symmetrically. The child is not pent
up in the narrow back yard Of a city
dwelling, nor turned into the rthronged
and filthy streets to pursue his sports.
His eyes open first upon green fields and
fragrant meadows, and his first foot fall
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 per-
forms SO important part in our early
staining. s
I" So this leads us to speak of the
influences Of farm life upon the home
virtues. No occupation can be more
favorable to the cultivation Of those
qualities which are the charm Of the do
mestic circle. The farmer is much more
at home than is possible with any other
man. How many are there in cities
who only see their families at evening
or on Sundays: They live for their bus
mess, and this, from its location, takes
them from home early and late. How
many, from the same cause, forsake
housekeeping and huddle into boarding
houses and hotels, where the charm and
beauty Of the family as God instituted
it is entirely lost and children fall un-
der thousand unfriendly influences
that would never touch them at home
With the best arrangements wealth could
command in the city, it is we'll nigh
impossible to keep children under the
influence Of their parents, so that they
shall have distinct family character,
and bear the moral, as the physical
image Of their progenitors. Parental
influence. is disipated amid the varied
social influences to which they are sub
jected from their early days. Then
what perplexitles harrass the man Of
business in the city-his capital often
invested in pro6tless enterprises, ex-
posed to the depredations of dishonest
men, betrayed, cheated and ruined by
knaves and bankrupts. 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 cultiva-
tor. His debts are often scattered over
awide extent Of territory, and collec-
lions are not only expensive but exceed
ingly uncertain. But his commercial
credit depends upon this uncertainty,
and he is often compelled to fall back
upon nothing, ruined man.
'sNinty-6ve failures in . hundred,
autong most business men in . city, tell
a sad tale Of the perplexity and sorrow,
the corroding cares and anguish. of
mercantile life. How can a father,
goaded with these anxieties, from the
beginning to the end of the year, do
justice to his children, even if his bust
ness allowed him to be with them part
Of the time? He is not in the frame of
mind to superintend their education and
to perform a fathers Office. s
5"The farm preserves the family in
its integrity. The home has in it that
charming word, and that more charming
thing, the freside, around which par
ents and children gather, and where the
bright and cheerful blaze upon the
hearth is but true type Of the fame of
love that CLOVIS in every heart. The
parents have been drawn together, not