Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1877-11-10
COMING TO THE CITY.

We know the eager, restless desire of Il
certain class of young men on the farm to
get away from farm lif' and come to the
city. T. ey dislike the drudgery, the
steady, hard work of the farm, and
think it would be much better and nicer
if they could stand behind a counter in
some dry goods store, or work in an office,
or even drive team. They would then
be "among folks" they think, and would
be able to see for themselves "what was
going on" The glare and glitter, the
noise and hustle, the activity and COM
motion, the apparent splendor and gave
ty of a city life, they think, would just
suit them, and would be SO different from
the solitude and loneliness Of the farm
home.
Now we have a few plain words that
we desire to address directly to this class
Not that words of similar import have
not been spoken before, but it will do no
harm to remind You of them again. And
There is drudgery to be done in the city,
as well as in the country, and ifanything
even more. There is also as much hard,
steady work. 1t is a little different in
kind, to be sure, but then it tires you out
just as soon, and you feel just as weary
at night. Besides, a man can work to
much better advantage in the stiffness
AID qaitude and amidst the uneNcitable
surroundings of country life, than he can
with the noise and confusion OF passing
multitudes around him. There would be
far less of nerve exhaustion and vital
consumption at the old home, than there
would be there.
But again, if all this were not true, the
city, at present, is the last place in the
world that any man should think of COM
ing to. Cities are generally overcrowded
but at the present time they are unusual
ly full. Chicago is as ell circumstanced,
as any large place in this respect, and in
Chicago to-day, by a safe estimate there
are from one to five thousand men ont of
employment. Some of these are men
with families who reside here, but a
large proportion of the number are yourg
men who have come in from all quarters,
looking for a situation, because they
wish to change their mode of life, and
feel dissatisfied with their present coD-
dition. No one by looking merely at the
outside can begin to tell the amount Of
magnificent misery and gilded poverty
which exists within the city walls. The
number of large business houses that are
making anything more than a bare liv-
ing now, is very small,
To any young man, or old man, who is
even comfortably situated on a farm, we
say, by all means, remain contented.
"Better endure the evils you already
have. than fly to others you know not off,
The temptations and seductiveness of
city life, its opportunities for self-destruc
ton by gambling, drinking, licentious
ness, and a thousand other evils, the pc
culiar isolation and lonesomeness of liv-
ing and moving among people whose
names, even, you do not know, is not
half as pleasant as it might appear at
first thought. The man who ought to be
the happiest of all men, is he who has a
nice farm, free from debt, and under a
good state of cultivation, with a cheer
full loving wife, and a goodly number of
to make music in his homc--
Prairie Farmer