Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-12-31
The Greatest Failure.

Every calling in life has its diff culties, and
often unforeseen and unavoidable circumstan-
ces bring disaster and failure. 1t may come
to the merchant through some sudden panic
in tho money market, or an unnatural and
unlocked for decline in the price of his
goods; to the lawyer or Clergyman from the
loss of popularity through no fault of his
own to tho mechanic from an over produc-
ton of goods and consequent loss of en-
ployment; to the contractor from strike of
workmen. No calling or class is exempt
from the evils which may result in business
loss and failure
We believe that the farmer is less liable to
such failures rs bring financial ruin than
most classes. To be sure, he frequently
meets with a failure of some crop, but as he
rarely depends on one, it does not seriously
affect his prosperity. If his wheat is short,
he has oats, corn, and potatoes Should his
corn crop be short, the wheat will probably
be good, and even in the worst seasons when
all staple crops are short, and he has little to
sell, his garden, poultry yard, and dairy yield
him an abundance of wholesome food, his
wood-lot gives him fuel, and no bill for rent
of house is presented. In our most favored
country a failure of crops such as to bring
distress and financial ruin is very rare.
While this is true, 1t seems to us there is Il
worse failure than that of crops to which our
farmers are peculiarly exposed, and that is Il
life failure. This failure may not be discoy-
cred as we ride by the farm. The broad
acres may be well cultivated, even the house
and grounds commolious, the stock well bred
and cared for, aud everything bespeak pros
perity and comfort. There are many such
farms owned by men who are living and
working for no other object than to make
money. We find no books in the house. no
agricultural or literary paper, only the organ
of their political party. The man measures
everything by the dollar standard. To him Il
flower is weed, all time spent at anything
but hard work is wasted, aud when prosperi-
ty has come and he not only loves no man
anything" but has cash in the bank, he and
his wife toll from four in the morning till
seven at night, until broken constitution
and premature old age stops their labors, and
as they have no capacity for enjoyment of
any other kind, they drag out n miserable
existence, aud are soon forgotten in the
grave. Their children, if bright and active,
soon tire of such life and leave it for other
| callings, so that their old age is lonely. What
a failure is such a life
There is another cause of life failure among
| farmers which is more apparent and unfortu-
nately more common than the above, and that
| that is debt, and perhaps i'll a majority of
cases it is caused by the greed for land.
| w uhl IL ultTCllbbS l1Tdul 10 utDl lOuRItliOh
in his "Hiawatha' draws a picture of the
unbidden guests, fever and famine" who
came into the wigwam, not for a call, or even
| a visit, but 10 make their permanent abode.
| So in how many farm houses of our land has
| debt entered 1t comes with fair promise
and smiling face, promising speedy compe-
| tence, but once admitted it sits down at the
| freside hard taskmaster, and dictates to
the family what they shall and shall not do.
| The old house becomes rickety and needs to
| be repaired or replaced with O new one, but
the grinning skeleton of debt says, NO.
| The faithful mother is worn out and needs
help in the house and visit to friends, bui
| debt stamps his bony foot and she dare not
ask it. The son or daughter Graves liberal
education, but debt thundcrs No" All thi,
| thousands of farmers are submitting to, anC
| imposing upon their families, for the priv
| lege of being called the owners of more land
than they can properly cultivate. Should the
| government impose half such burden upon
| Us there would soon be revolution that
would rend it to fragments.
Is not the life burdcned with debt failure
| There are, doubtless, to-day thousands OF oul
readers who feel the bondage of this mon.
ster debt and who could free themselves
from it by selling part of their land or by
selling the farm and buying a smaller one
Let us say to all such that the man with fifty
or one hundred acres of land, who finds hi
bills paid at the end Of the year, who look
forward to no interest paying is to be enyied
Let us thank God that there are more farm
ers each year who are making the most o
life, that the name is no longer synonym
for drudge or mudsill, but that life ON tn
| farm is recognized as one that can develop
noble manhood. Let u.s. thro' the power il
the Grange and the farmers club, protes
against making the accumulation of property
the end of life. Then shall we not be insen
sible to the pleasures of farm life and shal
find that in it we may developa symmetrical
character. -OhiO Farmer.