The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-01-29
" Farm Homes"

in the making of farm homes-a subject
that really emoodies the life and mean
ing of all the rest. For however pro-
ductive farm itself may be made by
labor, expenditure and enterprise, it
amounts to only nominal wealth if the
home that is the real head and substance
of the farm is uncared for. What we
all labor and struggle for as the basis of
our lives is a pleasant, thoroughly
equipped and happy home; a place
where we seek repose with certainty
of finding it; the one spot on earth
which we associate with contentment;
the source OF inspiration for our indus
| try and our courage in the world: the
harbor in which our earthly hopes and
ambition cast anchor, into which we
bring the fruits of all our patient labor
and our exhausting struggles.
NO man that we can name has so
many things in his favor, in his desire
to establish home as the farmer has.
He has land; the sun is his servant all
the year round; fresh air rolls its noise
less waves increasingly about his place
OF abode; he draws his fresh, cool water
from the hidden springs of the earth;
he is offended by no such odors as daily
and nightly detract from the health and
the enjoyment of the city resident; and
he performs his daily duties within call
OF his own door and within sight of his
own chimneys. No one else is privileged
to this extent. The mechanic and day
laborer carries cold dinner to the
place OF his labor and eats it in silence
and solitude, while the farmer sits down
to table surrounded by wife and chill
dren, his dinner smoking hot, and takes
his restful incoming in their welcome
society.
Our farm-houses are, as a rule, but
pictures of discomfort within and DESC
lation without. They suggest barrack-
life by their prevailing barrenness. Their
inmates appear to be satisfied if they
can get mere shelter and a tolerable de-
gree of warmth out of them. They are
unfenced, destitute of shade, with no
carpet of grass and knots of flowers be-
fore the door, in an island of rough
gravel or sand, their approaches all
open, exposed and forbiddingly uninvi-
ting, and set off with miscellaneous
assortment of old wagon bodies, cart
wheels, ox-sleds, piles of decaying
brush, dilapidated grindstones and ium-
ble-down smoke houses and similar out
buildings.
Within, they are hardly less comfort
less TO the visitor The supreme idea
of home happiness does not rule. Where
there should be plenty, and generally
Is, there ought to be refining taste to
accompany it. There is no more reason
why city and suburban should be COM
Portable and inviting and refined than
that country homes should be the same.
The styles of furnishing may be differ
ent. as they certainly ought to be; but
there is no reason why comfort and re-
tinement and an atmosphere of quiet
contentment should not characterize the
home by the road as we'll as the home
in the streets. There is no such thing
as caste in this country; a person can
be and can have much or little, as he
chooses.
Nothing will do more for a farmer
than the excitement of his ambition,
especially in the direction of lettering
and identifying his home. No class Of
our entire population more needs to
have its sentiments awakened into out.
ward expression, for no other class en-
joys such unlimited facilities for Civ
ing their sentiments embodiment. They
possess at Their hand just what others
are compelled to toll to secure. Nature
offers them its kindly. and even its low
ing. suggestion on every side.
Looking at it in the most practical
and matter-of-fact way possible. what |
is there for which the cultivator of the |
land ought to struggle and drag himself
for more than perfect home. And |
a perfect home is of course beau
tiful one. Some persons appear to re-
gard features of beauty as something to |
be avoided for no other reason than
that they are such, mistakenly suppos-
ing that it is not possible for the high
est beauty to grow out of the highest |
use. They seem to have absorbed a !
prejudice against all forms which paw |
any regard to the rules of art or the prin- |
ciples of aesthetics. 1t is needless to de-
nounce or satirize such state of mind |
in any one. What is wanted is educa-
ton, that larger and higher views may
be taken even on common subjects. 1t /
is case of ignorance growing out of |
Indifference.
Is not the farm worth more for hav-
ing good house on it, dwelling con-
structed according to the laws of true
taste, that is attractive while conven-
lent, and gratiiies the eye and kindIes
lender sentiments as well as satisfies the
more ordinary demands which genu-
inc home always makes' The owner
and worker of farm feels sense of |
pride in his home, if it be a good one.
IS the visible, tangible and ENJOYABLE
result of his years of labor There
stands his home, with his cultivated
icres stretching around. His life GEN.
res there; his heart is established there;
about the doors and on the grass before
hem his children play; his hopes are all
,olored with domestic hues, and he re-
poses firmly on the conviction that, in
every sense that is possible to any man,
he has world of his own.
Il 1