The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-02-10
Can Farming Pay such Taxes {!

We are not thinking. now, of the Inter-
nal Revenue tax-which so many manage to
evade-nor of our estate, County, Town,
and Road taxes, which we can not avoid.
These are comparatively moderate, and
somehow or other they do get paid, and
the world still moves on.
There is, however, another tax, though
it is not called by that name, from which
few of US can hope to escape, and which is
entitled to the gravest consideration. tits
cutting into our substance like two-edg-
ed sword-on one side idleness, on the
other extravaganza. Worst of all, the
sword is welded by our own flesh and
blood, by those who love us, and whom
we lovely our own daughters.
The reader will please notice that we
make no assertion in the heading of this
article; we only ask a question. We are
not, ourselves, prepared to give it defin-
lite answer; but we think there is at least
grave cause for anxiety in the habits and
tastes of farmers daughters. On our drive
to town, this afternoon, we met three young
women, daughters of three ordinary farm
ers-men who have the usual struggle to
make both ends meet, and who practice
the usual economies in their households
and on their farms. These damsels were
so dressed that little distance they look
ed like the daughters of the rich city peo-
pie who board in our ne ighborhood, in the
summer. AS they came nearer, it was plain
to see that they had eco nomized in material
as much as they had squandered in form
and color, and this marked wide distance
between their brighter exemplars. Yet,
save as they might, there was not one of
them who had not on her person-Count-
ing everything from button alters to
what Mr.. Punch calls Chig-nonsense.
and hat feathers-the value of first-class
moving machine, with reaper attached.
If this were the end, it would not be so
bad, but it is only the bad beginning. 1t
is not the capital invested in finery that
tells on our fortunes, but the awful inter-
est in the shape of renewals A first-class
two-dollar "back-hair" we might stand.
and done with it, but fashions change and
back-hair wears out, and the next style is
worse yet, and cost three dollars. And so
it goes from the crown of the head to the
soles of the feet; there is the same eternal
grind that wears away clothing and finery
alike. The more it cost the more must we
spend in repairs; and your modern ceun-
try miss, with her Harper's Bazaar and
Peterson's Magazine for the law and Cos
pei Of her attire, is very apt to be sort of
well-dressed mortgage-deed upon her faith
er's farm, and to become a sort of orna-
mental milestone about the neck of the
man who marries her.
Aside from all this we would call atten-
ton 20 the occupation of these girls Too
often we shall look in vain for the steady.
cheerful industry of their mothers times.
If they work, they are half ashamed to be
seen al it, and they rarely accomplish, from
one end of the year to the other, a tenth
part of what they are easily capable Of
In the "good old times" when farmers
were none too prosperous, when the land
was richer than it now is, and when the
cost of living was far less, our grand
clad, they wore their own hair, the renew
al of their gear cost wonderfully little mon
ey, and they worked like little beavers. If
we can trust our grandfathers' account of
them, they were as sweet and attractive
and as promising sweethearts as the more
costly and less useful jewels of our own
modern firesideS
We are not grumbling, and we are not
blind to the great advantages that modern
civilization offers to the young of both
sexes, as compared with those who have
gone before; we only express our anxiety,
lest the extravaganza that perversion of
our civilization has caused, end in the
ruin of the hard-ridden fathers
If farming was but moderately good
business forty years ago, with the industry
and economy of that time to help it. we
fail to see how, with the high price Of la
Dor. the low price of produce (compara-
lively, and the necessity of BUYING ma
nure that is becoming SO universally, the
farming of the present day is golug to
support household of girls who cost so
very much more than they come to.
American Agricuiturist.