The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1881-01-06

Gu. 1t would probably be heard in no
other country short of Algiers. In
the best. IL least, of the older cOun.
tries the tr;ldesman, the teacher, the
mechanic not to say the commercial
Traveller would congratulate himself
on the good fortune that promoted
hin to the social standing OF IL free
hold farmer. even though his acres
should be few enough to be counted
on his fingers. The notion that the
man somehow stands Il little higher
who wears fine linen and bends over
desk OF Il counter than the man who
wears overall, and holds plough.
handle is II backwoodS notion. III it
has had any iniuence-aS it doubtless
has had-in beguiling young men
from the farm to the shop, the mill
and the Office, it will not have it much
longer, AS II new-country sentiment
it will go the way of the log.cabins
and the corduroy roads.
Unfortunately there have been bet.
ter reasons than this why even the
boys bred on the farm have been SO
disposed to run away from it. In
farm life as il has been, there were
some serious disadvantages which the
stupidest boy could appreciate. The
two things which more than I'LL other
things together have turned the colln.
try girls toward suitors and country
boys toward work away from the
farm, have been the lonesolncness Of
farm life and the drndgery of it.
Young folks of the American type
have not found enough social stimulus
and satisfaction in the scant oppor-
tunities of the winter singing school.
the Fourth of July picnic. the aut-
umnal fair, the political mass-meet-
ing. In most farm-houses it has been
a rare if not IN unheard of thing for
half dozen unkindred neighbors of
'both sexes to be gathered at the tea
table simply for sociahility's sake.
| Winter evenings have seen too few
indoor gatherings of old and young
for games and songs and readings.
! The social opportunities of the rainy
day have generally been sought in
the longing places of the nearest
| village. TO say that the occasions of
of companionship are not SO easily
arranged for in the country us in the
town is only to Say that more pains
| should be taken to secure them. 1t
is not SO easy to get the mail or call
in the doctor, but no one expects, for
that reason. to go without newspapers
or quinine because he lives in the
country. There is the district school
hOuse--how much brighter its desks
and walls would seem to many a boy
and girl if it were associated with
the merry evening meetings, the win
ter through, for debates and lectures
and entertainments that it would be
in the power of 4 little home enter
prise to provide. There has been no
need that farm life should be as lone
some as the young folks have some
times found it.
AS to its Observation-Disclosures has
been the case in the past when there
were stumps to be pulled and mort.
cages to be lifted from almost every
field; when it was long way to the
market and the buyer paid for produce
in "trade;' when almost ill nipple.
ments were labOriously hewn out ut
home or clumSily hammered out by
the village Observation-Disclosures is hap.
PLY, less drudgery on the farm now,
and less need of it every year. Taking
the year through, the working hours
of a man on Il farm are no longer
than those of Il section hand Oh the
railway or the artisan in the shop
who has his own garden to hoe before
breakfast or after supper. The busy
lawyer and the doctor in average
practice. work longer and harder than
the farmer. The grocer and editor
and the book-keeper each sees less of
children in their waking hours than
the farmer who sometimes envies
them their "easy life Moreover,
within Il few years .labor-saving i'm
plcments have wrought u wonderful
change in almost every feature of
farm work. Iron and steel, levers
and cOgs, pistons and belts have taken
to themselves more than half the
back.ache and Precipitation in farm
ing as it was. What would the far.
mer of fifty years ago have thought
of such play as riding on plow, of
such recreation as pitching hay with
a hOrse.fOrk, of such magic dOings rs
those of the self-bnding harvester,
of such Il substitute for the weary
fail us the steam thresher! The law
that man shall earn his bread by the
sweat of his face has not been re-
pealed, but it rests about as lightly
now upon the farmer as upon any
body.
Parallel with this tightening of
hard work in the field is the relief
which has come in these changed
times to woman's work in the farm.
house. Almost amy man, though he
might be ready enough to lay on him.
self the burdens of farming as it
used to be, would shrink from asking
the best woman in the world to take
up the labOrs that used to fall OH the
farmers wife. But the grandmothers
probably never dreamed of such
relief from the farmhouse tread-mill
of cooking and skimming and churn.
ing and spinning and sewing this side
of Heaven as is realized now, when
there is but one farm hand ut the
table where there used to be three,
when the milk goes direct from the
barn-yard to the cheese factory, when
not only masculine garments but even