The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-11-11
F.IRM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Farming aad Manhood.
BY HORACE GREELEY.

Reading Gail IIamilton's article on g Ru'-
tic Simplicity impels me to ask whether
our loving Father and Friend has so order
ed His creation that obedience to His CON-
mands makes us "early wrink!ed, bent,
bald, rheumatic gives us the "hard,
Shrunk. shriveled look" and DEGREES us to
'.bequeath to our children diminished sta
tlre and cnfeebled frameS.' Gail Ilamil-
ton says such is the fate of "the actual.
hard working farmer" which most men are
and must be. My father was of tins class,
as my only brother is: so were both my
Irandlathcrs. and their ancestors, so far as
can trace them. My paternal Srandfatha IT
raised nine sons and four daughters, ard
never was worth $4,000 in any one of his
d years. My father was an unusually
hard worker, always farmer. never worth
50 0C0, generally worth from 0 up to $500:
he died Sc years old. and five of his seven
children survive, GO to 40 years old. The
two earliest died in infancy My uncle
John, born two years after my father, has
been a farmer all his life: he is now s.
years old, but erect and vigorous; his eye
bright, and his voice as full and ringing rs
most mems at 80. He is the last of the
thirteen children of my grandfather; one
only died Of consumption at thirtythree
years of age. leaving six children, of whom
i've are still with us; the rest OF my faith
er's brothers and sisters lived to be Fl ON
20 to 80 years old except one VIII o died at
80; and he was not an hahitual worker.
All the rest were farmers or farmers wives
hone of them over rich: most Of them
quite poor: yet not one Of them all was pre-
natnYeiy = wrinkled, bent or bald; not
one them bequeathed to his children and
al Of them had childreal diminished sta
turc,' or cnieebled frames" Here is
large family of poor, and generally hard
working farmers, the descendants of race
Of just such, who have lived by 1illin@ the
hard, rocky soil OF New Hampshire since
the year 1910. submit the facts in oppo-
sition to Gail $ naked assertion. happen
to be the only one the crowd who might
be called "bald.'' | was more bent = at
10 than my father or las father at 20; and
am the only one WHO earned his livelihood
otherwis, than by farming.
But is farming hard work?
TO some. l think it is. The very poor
have to take in this, as in other pursuits,
tie toughest and hardest tasks. TO clear
land of heavy timber, or stones, or s,umps,
is hard work; and in farming. as i'll other
pursuits, he who cannot make his head
available, must do the more with his hands.
"tnte' verytang on their heads, being
supplied by their masters with wheel bar
rows, lifted these with their contents to the
altitude of their thick skulls and walked
off with them. l should not wonder il this
made some of them appear ''bent, or even
- bald;' possibly " rheumatic also. If
So they sutff red not from their addition to
tillage, but from their lack Of Intelligence
of brains.
My rural home is in township settled
by Quakers, and still mainly peoplcd by
them. Nearly all are farmers: some poor,
others in very comfortable circumstances.
| am confident they do not average four
fair days work per week. and that not one
imong the hundred o. so is wrinkled.
"bent " or "bald," by reason of excessive
labor. doubt that there are five me-
among them who work or worked 50 hard
1t 80 as do at 60. Yet all live co,nforta-
bly,. and most of them are adding to their
| worldly store.
Again:
When was a farmers boy, the average
of farm work was harder, that is it requir-
| ed more muscular exertion, than it now
| does. Moving ard reapng severely taxed
| the physical energies of the stoutest; and
they were the chef business of the too hot
NOW and reap, men simply guiding them
Hoeing corn, potatoes, etc, drew the sweat
out of me profusely; now, cultivation is
| mainly horse work. In the West. a far
mer rides in his suli1y, tillinG his vast ex-
| panse of corn. | saw, last May, negro lads
| IA years running thirty horse engines on
the rich, alluvial plantations Of the lower
Mississippi, not merely blowing. bnt till
| ing crops of growing cane a foot high
! Negroes, lately slaves, guiding the rlows
| and cultivatorS, which did far better as
we'll as cheaper orl than horse power ever
| did | have not doubt that nine tenths
| of the cultivation of the great valley Will
be impelled by steam within the next TWEEN
! " wears. In other words, steam will do
| the work. directed by human intelligence.
And SO fast labor becomes intel iyenfs.
I will drudgcry cease. Biddy and D;r !
! will not use Il washing machine; when they
| abdicate, their educated mistress VIII not
work without one. And SO in other t,e
| partments. And now as to the city man
/ of rural BIRTH who - stands erect walks
/ elastic is at peace with himself and the
! world.
There are such, Enthusiastically Those
who have achieved aud succeeded can af-
ford it. But what proportion do they bear
to those who have rushed into cities and
| failed2 | have been here forty years. Meth
err theughtlcSs nor unohServant: and. in
my judgment. more country born men have
died here in prisons. hospitals and tn. alm,
house, in these forty years. than have
achieved even a modest competence. And
day after day my soul sickenS Il the never
ending procession Of the multitude who
crawl on the knees of their spirits TO those
who have achieved position and means
with the bergar's petition = Pleas" give me
something to do" | never knew 4 man OF
woman to grovel for work while | WAS a
farmers boy in the country. | am sure
Gail Hamilton did not mean to make my
life more care-fraught and sad than it need
be, by compelling me to say No to more
and yet more of these abject petitioners;
yet that she has done.
Woods household Mnga=int.