Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1873-11-20

averting bankruptcy by weay
ing the baskets or ingeniously
making one new lamp-wick out
of the remains of three old ones
1t has never occurred to these
very wise instructors that farm
ers and farmers families are hu.
man beings, with human feel
ings, human hopes and ambi-
tions, and human desires. Il
would doubtless be matter Of
surprise for them to learn that
farmers may possible entertain
some wish to enjoy life and
have some other object in life
besides everlasting hard work
and accumulating Il few paItry
dollars by coming them from
their own e-blood, and stamp
ing them with the sighs of wea-
ry children and worn wives.
What we want in agriculture
is a new Declaration of indie
| pendence. We must do some
thing to dispel old prejudices.
and reakdownthese old notions
That the farmer is mere ami
NAL, to labor from morn till
eve, and into the night, is an
ancient but abominable heresy.
We have heard enough, ten
times enough, about the harden
ed ''hand of honest toll" The
supreme "glory Of the sweat
ing brow" and how magnificent
the suit of coarse homespun
which covers a form bent with
oyerwork, and which has in
corporated in its every thread
moments Of painful labor which
the ovcrworked wife had sto-
len from needed rest.
| tell you, my brother tillers
Of the soil, there is something
in this world worth living fol
besides hard work. We have
heard enough of this profession
al blarney. Toll is not in it.
self necessarily glorious. To
toll like a slave, raise lat steers,
cultivate broad acres, pile up
treasures of bonds and lands
and herds, and at the same
time bow and starve the God
like form, harden the hands,
dwarf the immortal mind, and
| ALLEVIATE the children from the
homestead, is damning dis
grace to any man, and should
stamp him as worse than Il brute
1t is not honorable to sacri-
fee the mind and body to gain.
1t is not a trait Of true nobility
to bring up children to thank
less, unrequited labor. 1t is
not just or good or noble to
! wear out the wife of your bo-
som in the drudgery of the farm
without a just return. You
have no right to make agricul-
ture so disagreeablc as to drive
all young men Of spirit and en-
terprise into other branches of
business.
l will be met right here with
the thousand times repeated re-
joinder, 90! we farmers have to
work hard. We can't get along
as mechanics in town do with
ten hours work. We can't af-
ford to hire help. We can't af-
ford tohaveholidays. We can't
get time to make a vegetable
flower, and fruit garden, and
supply our wants with vegeta-
bles, flowers, and fruits. We
can't get time to make a lawn
and plant trees around the
house" You can't? You can't
Then what are you farming fori
AS men, as citizens, as fathers
as husbands, you have no right
to engage in a business whicl
will condemn yourself and youl
dependents to a life of unrc-
warded toll. If the calling of
agriculture will not enable you
and yours to escape physical
degradation, and mental and SO.
cial starvation, if it does moi
enable you to enjoy the ameni.
ties, pleasures, comforts, anC
necessities oflife as well as 9th
er branches Of business, it i.
your duty to abandon it at once
and not drag down in misery
I your dependent family. But
d onot believe We need be driver
to this alternative. | do believe
that agriculture, followed as ;
business, with a reasonable re
gard to business principles, cal
be made a business success.
believe that by keeping steadily
in view the primary end of lifi
our happiness, our comfort
our bodily health, our mental i'm
provement and growth-the.
can be as well attained or bette
than in any other calling. Righ