St. Landry democrat., 1882-09-30
The Old Rail Fence.

The placing of barbed wire fences
around farms, usurping the place of the
Ole rail fence, destroys half of the pleas
ure of farming. There is something
about the old rail fence that is real com
Portable. and the barbed wire fence is
forbidding. cold, repulsive. Until you
come to think of it, there does not
seem as though there was great deal
of solid comfort in a rail fence, but
there is. Did you ever see two old
farmers leaning against rail fence,
whiting, and talking politics or horse
trade for hours together? They are
moro comfortable, and rest more than
they would if they were occupying the
softest sofa, or the best stuffed arm
chair in the world. There are so many
about a rail fence. First, the farmer
will told his arms and rest them on the
top rail- and lean his breast on the
fence, and talk for half an hour, until
dis legs are tired, then he will step one
foot up on the second rail from the
bottom. and stand and white for half
an hour. until the top of the rail is as
polished As 4 piece of mahogany. Then
he will change feet and lean one elbow
on the second rail from the top, and
sharpen his knife on his boot, and talk
for half an hour about how he is going
to pay the mortgage on his farm next
year. After that position becomes irk-
some he will turn his back to the fence,
stand on his heels, and place his two
elbows on the top rail, and lean against
the fence, and for half an hour he will
tell about how the old mare that he is
trying to trade off cleaned out all the
teams on the road coming back from
the celebration at town, after the fire
works on the Fourth, and how, if he
wasn't fixed just as he is, and wanted
the twenty dollars boot money to send
Nathan off to the select school, there is
no man on earth could buy that mare.
Then he will get tired and stand around
sideways, put his left arm up on the
fence, and begin to white again, and
swear the man that runs the cheese fac
tory down at the corners is skinning us
farmers out of our eye-teeth Without
going into details as to ninety-nine
other combinations by which a farmer
can rest on, about or against a rail
Hence, it may not be out of place to
speak of sitting On top of q fence. The
farmers, after trying several positions,
will instinctively climb up the fence
and rest on the top rail, their feet rest
ing on the third rail from the top,
(which is always laid with projection
enough to make good footing. and an
hour will pass as the fellows talk Of the
times when they settled in the country,
and of the hardships they have endured,
and how the children have grown up
and gone away, and the conversation
will drift into sleepy channel, and the
tsun will begin to sink in the West; and
the horny-handed sons of toll will sud-
denly remember that the chores are to
he done, and with goodnight,
Lige." and a, Drop around agin to.
morrow, Ike they will separate, and
one will take a milk-pail and one
legged stool and go towards the lot
where the cows have come home, while
the other will go across the road to his
barn and throw down some hay for the
horses, and they will both go to bed at
eight o'clock as tired as though they
had been moving. But they had a
splendid, easy visit on the old rail fence.
Pech's Sun.