The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-08-24
The Farmers Hired Man.


~I'm kinder laokin' around th'
nias;;st f5r ahifed man, heexclaim
ed as ~. stopped at oneof the stands
and uibbicd at an onion. " ] kinder
necd ore, but yet. | kinder hope
shan't be able TO find him."
'How's that 2"
f'Wall, there amt no profit in a
hired man no more. No, sir, he:
no good ANY longer
Whats he reason?'
sob, ,.ozen reasons. First an(
foremost, times have changed, and
the hired man has changed with 'em
All sis, it makes me sad when
think of the hired man before the
war--great big feller with the strength
of an OK and the vim OF, a locomo.
tive. | didn't have to holler my
lungs out to get one of 'em out o.
bed at three O'Clock in the mornin'
and it was all / could do to coax
'em TO go to bed at 10 o'clock al
night. I'm afraid we sha'n't never
see no more hired men wuth keepin
around for their board"
That's sad"
"lt's sad, and more, two. Now
as l said | want hired man. I'm
willing topayS11 or s12amonth for a
smart one. Some farmers wanta man
to work all day and all night, but
that amt me. l never ask one to
get out of bed before | o'clock--nev-
er. l allus give my man three-quar-
ters of an hour at noon, unless the
hogs get out, or cattle in, or show
er is coming up. After man has
worked right along for nine hours
his system wants at least half an
hour to brace up in. They don't
quit on some farms till s O'Clock,
but I'm no such slave driver. At
half past Z | tell my man TO knock
of. All be has to do after that is
to feed the stock, cut little wood,
now some grass for the horses, milk
four cows, fillup the watering trough,
start smudge in the smoke house
ard pull a few weeds in the garden
l never had a hired man that didn't
grow fat on my work and they al
lus left me feeling that they hadn't
half earned their wages"
He stopped long enough to wipe
a tear from his eye, and went on
''And now look at the hired man of
to-day. He wears white shirts and
collars. He won't eat with knife.
He wants napkins when he eats,
and if we don't hang up a clean tow
leonce week he wipes on his hand
kerchief. Call him at 3 and he gets
up at 6. He wants whole hour at
noon, ana at supper he's off to sing
ing school or sets down to news
paper. Fifteen years ago if nv
hired man was sick for half day
| could dock him. If he died |
could take out a months wages for
the trouble. He was glad to get
store orders for his pay, and he
would wash in the rain barrel and
wipe on the clothes line. There's
bin a change. sir-an awful change.
and if a reaction don't set in pretty
soon you will witness the downfall
of agriculture in this country
Then you won't hire another p
Wall l can't Just say. Work -
powerful pressing T; but I'm going
slow Before / hire him | wans TO
know whether he's u man who'll
pass his plate for more meat and
taters, and whether we've got 10, use
starch in doing up his shirts. The
last man | had took me to task for
not holding family prayesstwice u
day, and after had done sofer three
months | found it was only game
of his to beat me out of half an
hour a day. He thought he had q
pretty soft thing, and he looket
mighty lonesome when l cut Ole
Hundred down to two lines and go
through with the Lords PRAYER il
forty seconds