The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1881-03-10
From Good Company.
LIFE ON THE FARM,
No Longer Z Business Second to Any Other,
But tie Sursst and Best Of All.

country short of Algicrs. In the best
at least, of the older countries the trad
csinan, the teacher, the mechanic-nOt
say the commercial traveler-wOuld con-
graduate himselfon the good fortune
that promoted him TO the social stand
ing of freehold farmer even though
his acres should be few enough to be
counted on his fingers.
The notion that the man somehow
stands little higher who wears fine
linen and bends over counter or desk
than the man who wears ovcralls is a
backwoods notion. If it has had any
inilucncc-as it doubtless has had--in
bcguiling young men from the farm to
the shop, the mill, the Office, il will not
have it much longer. As new-cOuntry
sentiment it will go the way of the log
cabins and the corduroy roads.
Unfortunately there have been better
reasons than this why even the boys
bred on the farm have been so disposed
to run away from it. The two things
which more than all others make boys
displeascd with the farm and girls turn
toward suitors is the lonesomencss of
farm life and the drudgery oft
Young folks of the American type
have not found enough social stimulus
in the scant opportunities of the winter
singing school, the Fourth of July cele-
bration, the autumal fair, the political
mass-mecting. In most farm houses it
has been rate if not an unheard of
thing for half a dozen unkindred neigh
bors of both sexes to be gathered at the
tea table simply for sociabiliiy's sake.
Winter evenings have seen too few in
door gathering of old and young for
games and songs and readings.
The social opportunities of the rainy
day have generally been sought in the
lounging places of the nearest village.
1t is Of course not so easy to get the
mail Or call in the doctor, but no one
newspapers or quininc because he lives
in the country.
There is the district school house
how much brighter its desks and walls
would seem to many boy and girl if il
were associated with the merry evening
meetings, the fall and winter through,
for debates and Lecturers and entertain
mcnts that il would be in the power of
a little home enterprise TO provide.
There has been no need that farm life
should he as lonesome as the young folks
have sometimes found ii.
As to its drudgery-w whatever has
been the ease in the past when there
were stumps to be pulled and mortgages
TO be lifted from almost every field
when it was a long way TO market. and
the buyer paid for produce in ''trade -
when almost all implements were labor
iously hewn out at home or clumsily
out by the village blacksmith
there is happily less drudgery on the
farm now. and less need of it, every
wear.
Taking the year through the working
hours of a man Oh farm are no longer
than the railroad engineer or 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, the editor and
the book-sccpcr each sees less Of his
children in their waking hours than the |
farmer who sometimes cnvics them their
easy time" Moreover, within few
Years labor saving machinery has
wrought wonderful change in almost
very feature of farm work. Iron aud
tcel, levers and cogs, pistons and belts
lave taken to themselves more than
half the back ache and Precipitation in
a,ming rs it was.
What would farmer of fifty years
go have thought of such play as riding
su.ky plow, OF such recreation rs pitch
NJ hay with horse fork, of such mag
c doings as those of the self binding
arvcstcr. of such a substitute for the
'cary fail as the steam thrasher.
Since the milk in many localti, goes
ircct from the barn yard TO the cheese
tctory, and not only all the masculine
but even feminine habiliments
re bought ready made. we note the
realty improved condition of the toll
lg farm wife as well.
The cities and towns are full of men
no once had visions of a business sue
,ss that would in monthly profits put
, shame the small savings ola farmers
feline On the home stretch of three
ore and ten they find themselves de-
nudent for a livelihood on salaried
Dsition which they they hold by dis
ally uncertain tenure, or on the pre-
Irious commission of q canvasser or
traveller. In comfort and in
come the lives they have led make
abby showing compared with what
cy might have been rs farmers, fact
&C young men may well consider who
c debating the question whether they [
III turn their backs on the farm. lie
ould think also Of the five chances of
ccess in commercial lite and the shine
five" chances of sure failure.
The colorcd people of the northern
,tcs have singularly ignored farming.
lille they have Justly complained of
c cruel prejudice and ostracism which
We so mcanly slammed the doors Of
,st calling in their faces. they have
'angcly turned away from the one OPP "
ing which offers the pleasantest homes
9 surcst livelihood, the greatest I'M
unity from insult. They have turncd
ay from il, too, TO crowd into mcnia
ling that have by their nature help
to perpetuate the prejudice against
I'M. For the country's sake rs well