The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-03-02
''BiII Arp'' on CIty and Country
Life.

ny sd luS lDdJ tuc lOWu was thO
best place for a rich man to live in,
and the country was the best place
tor a poor man to die in, inasmuch
as riches were uncertain and death
was sure, man had better settle
down i'll the country as soon as he
could and be content.
That is very good advice: but the
trouble is in being content. No man
is content until he gets old enough
to be philosopher. Young people
are restless and ambitious. The
world is very lovely to them, and l
don't blame 'em for wanting to en-
joy it; but I've noticed that those
who have the best time in their
youth have the poorest in their old
age, and. like Solomon, are ready to
exclaim, vanity of vanities, all is
vanity" The best way is to raise
children to work-to earn their liy-
ing-and the'best place for the m is
in the country on farm. It's a
slow way to make money, and
it is all the better for that.
Money made slow is money
made sure. A dollar dug out of
the ground is worth five dollars
made in town, and better than one
hundred dollars given to a young
man. Habits are formed in our
youth. and town habits are TO spend
all that is made. A young man
who is clerking at fifty dollars a
month will spend it all going to
shows and frolicking around, which
amt so bad, if it wasn't for the
habits. He gets so after awhile
that he is always hankering alter
shows and some new excitement,
The country to him is an awful dull
place. He has more time to think
and study but a town boy doesn't
want TO think. It's not his brain
he wants to exercise, but it's his
emotions and passions.
A young man ought to spend
three or four years in the country, If
for nothing else but his good health
his constitution. 1t will build him
up and expand him. A country boy
can't dance as gracefully and skip
round as cat-like as town boy, for
he don't walk on pavements all the
time. A country boy walks on a
dirt floor. He works all over and
he dances all over. A town boy can
fight right good fight for two or
three minutes, but a country boy
can fight all day. They say the town
boys made the most spirited soldiers
in the war, and reckon they did,
but the country boys had the most
endurance. mean the country
| h h.a1 III
There were lots of poor fellows who
never had a good, healthy meal OF
victuals, and grew up pale and
sickly, who give out pretty soon
for they are cowed and hacked be
fore they started; but l noticed that
the sons of our comfortable farmers
held out better than anybody. They
| had better constitutions. A town
boys liver is always getting out OF
order, and a town girl don't eat
much of anything but candy and
she has two or three little weasel.
face children, which have to be
raised on the bottle, she is pretty
well used up, and has to go to the
springs every summer, and be doc
tored and physicked the balance of
her career. Who ever heard OF
country folks going to the springs
for their health. There are lots OF
good, strong, healthy men i'll the
cities, but they were not raised
there. Look at the Kisers, and the
WHY'S, and Dodds, and Mr.. Marsh
and Barry, and Rhode Hill, and Jim
Dunlap, and Mr.. Keely, in Atlanta
They were all brought up on a
farm, and had to pillow, and hoe
aud dig, and hunt foxes and coons
and 'pOssums, a nd ride the old
mare to mill and. go in washing
and line the singing-school and
sing bass in the old Southern Har.
mony," and they grew big and
strong, and if fellow had come
along with liver medicine or q
lung pad to sell they would have
taken him up as a lunatic. But ii
takes all sorts of pads to fix up q
city woman. Liver pads, and hip
pads, and shoulder pads, ami bosom
pads, until by the time they are
padded all over they look mighty
nigh as shapely as country girl.
Farming has been sorter under
the ban ever since | can remember
The mechanic ranked the farmer
and the merchant ranked the me-
chanic, and the lawyers and doctors
ranked the merchant, and the mem.
bers of congress ranked everybody
but the farmers are coming to the
front, and the lawyers are losing
ground. Farming is now looked
upon as a respectable science, and
the practice of law as a trickster's
trade. The average lawyer of the
present day is a sort of wrecker up.
on the coast, always looking out for a
stranded ship, and by the time he gets
| through the court with his case his
client can hardly tell whether he has
gained it or lost it, for its ruinous
business anyway. A modern law
yer can lose the papers or bride a
witness, or fool the jury, but the
farmer can't tool the soil he WORKS
on, and all his labor and toll and
sweat is honest. There is no cheat
ing the ground out of a crop, nor
the Creator out of a shower. He
feels his dependence all the time
and it keeps him properly humble
and if Bob Ingersoll had had to
make his living that way he would
have been a different sort of 6
man. Farming is the oldest
business we have an account of
Old Father Adam entailed on us {
power of thorns and thistles anC
bull nettles, and cuckle burs, anC
tread salts, aud Cain disgraced hi
occupation by not giving to tn,
Lord the choice of his crop, but it i
the salvation of all civilized coun
tries, and irst-class farmer come
nearer fulfilling mans manifest des
tiny than other profession. But
wouldn't farm on poor land no
with poor tools and poor stock-P'
live in town first-Pd hire out Oh
the railroad, or dig in the mines a
a dollar day, or clerk in a cross
roads store, or run for the legisla
ture. Ten acres of good land j
worth more than hundred of poo
land. A rich man can afford t
own some poor land and i'm
prove it, but a poor man cam
Well, I've got nothing against th
cities or towns. / know we ar
obliged TO. have 'em, but they ar
, poor places to raise children in. 1t
an accident if they make good cit
zens and grow up strong an
! healthy. 1 never saw a man VIII
got rich IN city by trading an
specializing that didn't banker afte
n n. 4. =.