Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1876-02-03

ing farmers and their families together !,
least once a week for social and religion
improvement. These advantages are not t.
be decried but it must have occurred t
| our clerical friend that these opportunitie
for social intercourse were very limited
More than half the time that his parishion
ers were listening to his ermon or prayers
and it would have been the height of impro
priety for them to try to get a word in edge
wise. The few minutes before and afte
service, while the people were gathering O
preparing to depart. gave the only chanc'
for really social conversation, and this ever
at these times was too often checked as al
most a desecration of the Sabbath. In thu
olden times, when two were com
mon, there used to be a good, long inter
mission between the sermons, which to very
many wa really the most satisfactory, ant
possibly the most beneficial of the day
services; but OF late years, Bible-classes an(
Sunday-schools, both excellent in theil
place, have sadly cncroached on the PEG
pies hour for Sunday recreation and CONVEX
sation.
The grange was not invented in those
days, albeit this clergyman wrote the article
to which we have referred less than tel
years ago. We do not doubt that he is to
day, with thousands of other country cler
| gymen, n of the oranges most earnes
and hearty supporters. Some means O.
bringing together farmers, with their wives
and families, in a ne%ighborhood has become
a social necessity, and the grange supple:
the only practicable and e%fectual means
thus far discovered. Farmers Clubs have
done something to bring farmers together
but their failure lies in not providing fol
farmers wives. 1t is this which has made
it SO difficult to maintain efficient Farmers
Clubs.
The cooperation of woman in the grange
seems like an inspiration. No other one
fact has done SO much to make it a success
1t has for the first time made the social in.
%tercourse of the scattered farmers and thei1
families in a town or neighborhood a posi-
bility, not alone in church, where religious
instruction is the chief feature, but in meet
ings for social discussion by farmers and
their families Of subjects connected with
their everyday life ON the farm or in the
household.
1t is not best to attempt to make the re-
ligious element in the grange too prominent.
The grange is not, and ought not to be a
rival of the church. Working for the i'm
provement Of men and women, it appeals
mainly to their too-long-neglected social
faculties, and thus works with the churches
rather than in rivalry to them. Agricul-
ture newspapers and books have for years
been Frightening the intellectual side of the
farmers life. Religious societies nave slim
ulated his moral and spiritual faculties; but
all these have only made the dwarfing of his
social nature more irksome. The inrceas-
ing intelligence OF farmers has been making
them feel more keenly the lack Of social adj
vantages in their life, and it tends to drive
them from the farm. The institution of the
grange came one too soon to reverse this
process.
1t is a curious fact that the grange pro-
notes social progress in two ways. In its
economic features it places labor-saving ma
for the farm, the household, the
and the dairy at such reduced rates
that they are within the reach of all, and
thus made social intercourse possible
among farmers, it provides in its numerous
meetings, lectures and entertainments the
occasions for enjoying it. No n of its fea-
lures could have attained their present sue
without the cooperation of all others.
NsaD Yorker.