The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-05-09
Keeping Boys on the Farm.


" no are not reared upon the farm to be-
come farmers, but also to persuade farm
ers' sons to follow in their fathers foot
steps. Our New England farms
are but watersheds for the deep
channels of city life. Our young men
turn their backs upon the old home
stead; the furrow is too long for them
to tread, the field too broad for them
to cultivate, the home life too quiet to
satisfy them shorter walk to wealth,
less laborious means of livelihood,
more excitement evenings beckon
them to the distant city Distance lends
enchantment, the horizon, flushed with
the light of the city, gives no hint of the
suffering and shadows under the gaslight
And their spirits leap within them,
To be gone before them then;
Underneath the light they look at,
In among the throngs of men.
The only way to meet and successfully
check this tendency is to make farm life so
pleasant the boys will not want to leave.
There is a deal of dru1gery on the farm
of necessity,a round of routine that wear
les, duties that are unpleasant, chores
that must be attended to, hard work that
all these troubles. Hold your boy some
thing better than your dog, little dearer
than your horse, remember that you were
boy once, put yourself in his place, he
| is neither an OK 10 be driven, nor pillow
to be pushed, but human soul to be
cared for, studied, loved. In proportion
as he is put up for grand uses, is nervy,
/ be you careful. The blow that would
not start the s;olid cx will sting the
! blooded horse to madness; give Il holt
day row and then, spend it with him ,
you can not give him all he may crave,
give him yourself, be his companion, his
friend. Don't live so much in the future
tense, get and give some enjoyment out
of the present. Don't clip your farm as
you do your sheep, selling all the wool
and shivering yourself. Don't skim your
farm as you do your milk, selling all the
cream, and starving on what isn't strong
enough TO rise. Don't send all your best
fruit to the market and eat the knurly,
worthless remainder. Don't keep all the
small potatoes for home consumption
Don't % as a muzzlei OK through your
own fields and across your own threshing
floor
Dress your son well one Of the best a.
prations of New England lad Is to be
well dressed and in that fact there lies a
strong argument for city life; a new har-
ness on horse and new suit on man
have much the same effect. The suit Of
clothes that scares the crows from the
co n frightened the boy from the farm
first
Improve the house, paint the house,
build fence round the front yard, lay
out walks, cultivate flowers, open the sit
ting room. Webster is right when he de-
fines kitchen as ~ cook room Use it
as such. \ place to prepare food, not to
eat it, place to keep pots and pans, not
people. Wear a coat in the house, never
sit down at table in your shirt-sleeves.
Oxen and horses may ca. as they work,
you are men. These are tri1cs.n Yes,
they are trihes, but it is just these trifles
which 90 to the formation Of character,
and your sons and daughters feel the diff
ference between their home life and that
of their fellows of the town more keenly
than you think.
Give your boy pleasant room. Take
him out of that little closet with its bare
walls and bare floor, and hard bed, and
small window. Give him a larger apart
ment, make it means of education, APP
peal TO his better nature; have here and
there a picture, cheap print if you will,
but something artistic, curtain the win
dow, cover his bed with something be-
sides patchwork quilt that rivals
JOseph's coat in variety, give him a bet
ter than a centennial chair in age, and
unfit for any other room. Provide him
slippers and insist upon his wearing them
in the house. Have a few books and "A
iirst-class daily or weekly paper, let the
stream of modern thought leave some
sediment on his mind. Urge him to in
vite friends to pay visits, have social
gatherings. Invite learned men and gen
tie women to your house, let them teach
him to find
Tongues in trees, books in the running
brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything"
When he has learned to see the foot
prints of the Creator in the quarry of the
hill, he'll not care so much to follow the
! footsteps of man on the pavements of the
city. When he can hear the tongues in
trees, he'll listen less longingly to the
| tongues of men. When he has found
books in the running brooks he'll care
less FOR novels, and when he has found
good in everything he'll shun the bad in
everything as we'll. Make the farm in
field and house pleasant and attractive,
and in the great majority of cases the
! problem is solved.