The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-10-19
Reys en- the Farm .

III tell you what II Is. III be ever
lastingly confsticated if I'll stay on thi!
old, dull, dreary, monotonous farm day
longer than I'm obliged to Whats
the use of drudgin' a body's life away
Jest for the sake o common kind O.
clothes, and board Here l am seven.
teen years old next June, and dom t,knoW
much more than a calf of seventeen
months ought to, and how am I ever
goin' to know anything at this rate2 !
work all the time, except goin' to school
one term in the winter, and am kept at
home every time there's any work that
father would have to do If / didn't. |
could stand it better if l had something
good to read evenings, but father take.
only one paper, and | read that all
through in two hours, and then I'm with.
out again. | borrowed book the Other
day, lively one, full of fight and in.
dians, but father saii he wouldn't have
such trash sHs1oUtU-vfse,- mouse, to fill nv
head with murder and nonsense; but
why don't he git something else them
Pm tired of heaTin' nothin' but grOwlin'
about taxes and hard times, all thes
| long winter evenin's, and I want to fee
as though there was some use o livin
and workin' Father, and Mr.. Brown
and Smith, and Green, all say that farm
ers do all the work, and rich folks Twin
in towns and cities take all the pay, and
make all the money, and Cypress 'em and
crush 'em down, and make 'em pay out
everything they can earn in taxes, and
/ then look down on the very men that's
| feedin' the whole kit of EN-, and they all
want their boys to stay on the farm and
be farmers. I'll be hanged if I'll do it.
get so mad sometimes when l think
that if its As they say. that's what Ia
theirs keePin' me in ignorance to earn
money for, and I've a notion to eat tur-
key enough TO kill myself Why do
they keep us out O. school and cheat Us
out O the education that the government
gives back 10 Us, and make US earn
money to support these idlers that they
talk about, instead of lettin' us have our
time and schoolin' so that We can be
somethin' else besides the beasts that
bear the burdens, as they say We do2
Another tn1ng that 1 don't understand
is this grumblin' and complainin' about
the men in office. Who put 'em there
Amt there just as many farmers rs any,
body else? And don't a farmers vote
or a hod-carrier's count as much as a
millionaire's? And amt there more
farmers than there is mDlionair's? If
the lower ten thousand wants TO be shift
less enough to be governed by the upper
ten, after the government has put the
power in the hands OF the majority, it's
good enough for 'em, but for my part I
don't propose to be one OF the lower ten
thousand.
It every farmer would educate his
children instead of keePin' EN- to work
to support other folks, and take plenty
of good agricultural papers 80 that they
could learn to work intelligently, and
other papers and mag zines, 90 that they
could learn to vote intelligently, it would
soon he the upper ten thousand and the
lower ten.
When such things comes to pass boys
won't want to leave the farm, but as
long as we are told by folks that are
older and ought to know, that farmin'
don't pay, that it's all work and no play
experience has taught Us that and
everybody else has easier times than the
farmer, and when even the incest fruits
and plumpest turkeys are hurried off to
be sold TO folks who can afford TO eat
them, and the poorer ones left for those
who raise them, and while town boys
ride around and enjoy themselves, and
go to school and have lyceums of eirth
own, and books and papers to read, and
chances to make something OF them
selves, and farmers boys are expected TO
stay at home and work, and be good. and
honest, and virtuous, and he content
with ignorance and drudgery, how can
they expect the boys to be in love with
the prospect? Every boy with the least
bit of energy will look for something
more encouraging. IsADORE.