Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-08-31
A Plain Home is Better than q Jail.

The best possible remedy for the in
creasing idleness among laboring men,
could be found in the leasing or owning
Of small tracts of tillage land Those
who have given this subject but little
thought, have only meagre conception
OF what can be wrought out Of an acre
or two of land, if well occupied with
such crops of vegetables and fruits as
are indispensable to the sustenance of
every family, and as ale calculated to
minister to the comfort Of all, the rich
and the poor alike.
There are thousands of mechanics out
Of employment and have been mainly so
for two or three years past, who could,
if upon a small piece of land, with the
necessary application, grow nearly eve
rything wanted upon the table, and up
on this plan would secure such a varie-
ty as they could not affor.! 20 buy, inclu-
ding many luxuries that would flow to
them daily, during large portion of the
year Our readers at large have but a
faint idea of the manner in which men
have lost their places, and the extent of
the idleness that has come Of this. Dur
ing the late riots in Chicago we mingled
with the crowd, and among others that
were interviewed was bookbinder TO
the question, What proportion of the
men who had steady work three years
ago in this city in your line of business
have work now?" His answer was that
in the shop in which he worked, there
were twenty journeymen employed
regularly, many Of them having families,
that these men had all been discharged
except two, the places of the twenty
three being supplied with apprentices,
the men sent adrift, most OF them doubt
less are now tramps.
So, in the present state OF things,
there are too many who depend upon
working for somebody else, and this
number has been rapidly augment
ed through the large number of ap-
prentices who have learned trades, and
are in their turn dropped out to give
place to cheaper help. All this proves
the need of men working for themselves,
setting up in business on their own ac-
count, if it be only to buy or lease two
or three acres of land, building thereon
a house at cost for lumber of $40, and
growing thereon, as before stated, near
" everything wanted for the sustenance
of the family. The dependence Of men
and their families in cities upon the
wages of uncertain daily and even week
ly employment should be rated by them
as holding to life by very uncertain
tenure. The ambition to own, or even
to lease for a series of years, a patch OF
ground upon which something could be
grown to meet the daily demands of the
table, should be rated by workingmen as
something to be proud of, especially
when compared with being classed with
tramps, begging from house to house,
and liable to be incarcerated in a com
mon Jail or shot down like dog.
TO rear family of children upon
such a little homestead would be inf
nitely better than to rear them in a
crowded city, because, necessarily, to
live within your means, you must Occu
py that part which is infested by thieves
and rogues, and your wife and children
are brought hourly face to face with the
lowest grades of society. Men who
have not given thought in this direction
have no idea how cheaply little place
may be stocked with fruit and shade,
the former very quickly yielding an in
come over and above the wants of the
family.
Thus plain home may be made a
paradise of comfort and plenty, when
compared with the miserable habitations
of the tens of thousands who exc out a
life of the lowest order in all of the lar
ger cities, or higher still when compared
with the life of the tramp, who, after
sending his wife to her kindred, starts
out to hunt work where there is no
work, resting at night in the fence cor
ner and alarming timid women by call
ing from door to door for food.