Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1882-07-05

II is encouraging to note that ON this
question of boarding hired help in the
farmers family, some progrcss'is max
ing toward reform. II Is a system which
eventually must pass away, because the
only plausible reasons for II will &C lsc
to exist as population increases, and the
nature of farming is better understood.
Some farmers advocate it because
they think it more economical than to
pay hired man enough To enable him
to look out for himself. This may be
true in limited sense. Ii farmer can
keep his hired man or men on tho prod
ucts of his own farm, he creates a sort
of home market for them. That would
be well, did it not involve other consid-
erations. The admission of one or sew
eral men TO the family destroys that pri-
vacy which is so essential feature OF
domestic happiness. No third person
can ever be made member of the fam
ily without, in some measure at least,
causing man and wife to feel less at
home in each others society. Farm
boarders have not usually, like town or
city boarders, comfortable room 10
which they are expected TO resort when
the meals are over, or the evening sets
in. Were conveniences of that sort
common, il would mitigate the evil.
But the worst objection to tho system
is the slavery II entails on the farmers
wife. Most wives are also mothers, and
often their strength is overtaxed by tho
claims of their own families. If in adj
dition they must cook, bake, wash and
"clean up after one or more hired
men or boys, the burden is almost in
supportable. Except as TO the social
aspect the burden falls almost entirely
on the wife. There is no reason why n
woman should be exempt from duo
share of farm cares, but it should be
remembered that her work is vastly
different from that of her husband. His
varies with the seasons, Is measurably
attractive, and often full of interest
hers is steady, uninspiring, common
place drudgery, much the same in all
seasons II she is fairly strong, and in
the moderate circumstances common to
most farmers, it is not expected that she
will have any help in the house. She
must do the work alone, except with
such assistance rs she can get from
growing children. The husband has
monopoly of the help. He has also
machinery and good horses to aid him.
The wife must depend mainly on her
lands and her pluck.
There il another objection TO this
boarding system namely, the influence
on the children of the family. The
moral character of the help farmers are
obliged TO accept is often not of type
to make il welcome in the family circle.
Here again can speak from experience.
When boy of sixteen and later on, my
father employed one or two young men,
boarding them, and worked with them
and much OF the time we were alone.
They were sons of fairly reputable par
ents, but with little home discipline or
moral training. and when only 1--WE
boys were together the talk was not
such AZ would bear the light Of types.
The lascivious stories | heard from
those boys, and the ribald songs and
icsts, sometimes come back to me now,
in spite of o long lapse of years, with
disgusting distnctness, even in the most
solemn moments, and | would give not
a little il | could Danish them forever
from my mind. In my fathers pres
encc they were respectful, and probably
neither he nor my mothercvo suspected
the sort of influence TO which I was ex-
posed. So. it is in thousands of cases.
Custom, and even sort of necessity,
places the farmers sons on social
equa ity with the hired men about him,
and this not only during the busy hours
of work in the fields, but at the fireside
under the boarding system, in bed at
night, and often on Sundays. The sup
ply OF farm laborcrs now comes. even
more than formerly, from tho foreign
element, or ungoverned sons of foreign
ers, who sheer AT morality rs being
"Puritanical,' and construc liberty as
license. This of course increases the
dangers connected with boarding them,
and justifies every sensible farmers
wife in protesting, with the utmost
vchcmence, against the continuance of
a system so prolific of unhappiness and
moral danger.
But what shall be done with the hired
man or men? Do with them as is done
In the case of laborers in other voca-
tions-require them to look out for
themselves. You hire them TO work,
and that includes no obligation to find
them in food, clothing OF lodging. A
friendly interest is commendable, but
farm hands should be rs INDEPENDENT rs
city laborers are in such matters. True,
in some cases the difficulty of dwellings,
scattered far apart, and of no tenant
houses on the farm or near il, is insuper-
able at present. In such case do the
best that is possible, but don't settle
down to the idea that this system is to
stay. 1t must go. Hired men can look
out for themselves to far greater ex-
tent than is now done. The ten-hour
system, now common in so many re-
gions, is help TO the abolition of this
boarding nuisance. Provide the laborer
with a place, and he has time enough to
do most of his own work, provided he
has no wife to do it. Every farm on
which laborcrs must be employed should
have a tcnant-house, one or more-that
Is, in case there are no other facilities
for boarding farm hands at suitable
distance. These houses can be cheaply
built. and will go far TO make farming
more attractive, because less burden
some. In one of these several boardcrs
may be accommodated, perhaps, from
adjoining farms. - Cor. ". y Examiner.
The Law al Digestion.