The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-07-29
A Field that is Still Open.


Young men are disposed and with
some justice nowadays to complain that
all the Vocations are overcrowded, and
that for every vacant clerkship there are
n score of applicants. 1t is also made a
theme of lament that the professions are
too full, and young men who have a
moderate capital and some business ca
pacity and experience, declare that in
mercantile pursuits competition is ruin
Gus and that small sum of money is Of
little accountin the settled communities.
Granting that these complaints are
well-founded, there is a field yet open for
energy, skill and ambition. The prob
lem OF how to make a living can be per-
haps more satisfactorily solved by falling
back on the soil than by any other ex-
pertinent. There are still cheap lands
in the West and South, and if a young
man lacks money to farm on big scale,
he can begin in q smaller way, and by
stock raising, small fruits, truck patch
ing or some other limited essays in this
wholesome and useful field of agricul-
ture secure living, and, with reason
able fortune, in time competence.
There are hundreds of young men in
cities, who could, in few years. save
up enough money, if they were so in
clined, to buy little place and devote
themselves to raising food for the ever
increasing millions of consumers in the
country.
With all the hardships of farm life, and
they have been greatly exaggerated, it is
the happiest life known to men. 1t is
fho al 81,
ments and the tortuous devices and the
selfish rivalries and the antagonisms that
mark the struggle of humanity for food,
shelter and clothing than any other mode
of existence. 1t. is life which is COM
monty attended with health, with good
appetite and digestion, sound sleep, clear
complexion. expanded lungs, firm mus
cles, an open mind and an untroubled
conscience. The man who gets fairly
under way in this pursuit with his house,
his lands and his crops unembarrassed is
certainly an independent man, if such
being exists In the genial southern
climate he escapes the seventies of win
ter, and his lot is a still happier one.
He is sure of food, and if he be decently
prudent he never need know what debt
is. There are localities in Kentucky,
Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama,
and Florida, where an energetic young
man. with little capital, could do better
at farming than he could possibly hope
to do in any city or at any other vocation,
and out in those far regions of Oregon
and Washington Territory there are
splendid opportunities for young men to
begin now career useful, happy and
prosperous in tilling the soil under the
open sky, away from the contentious of
cities.
The temptations in cities which invite
a reckless waste of money are apt to
keep those poor who do get good salaries,
and then a salaried position is always
one of more or less dependence and pre-
carious in its tenure. To be ones own
master is a thing to be coveted and
sought after The brave and energetic
young fellow who has made a good Sc
lection of a little farm in well-watered
valley. and who means to be forehanded
and avoid debt and slavery, can in time,
unless he is signally unfortunate, be his
own master, in every proper sense. and
he will find this free and beautiful OPEN
air life thousand-fold happier than the
artificial life of towns. Here there is
field that is ever open. There is no
danger of its being overcrowded. There
will always be q tendency to rush into
the cities for the excitements which
flourish there, and the wise and ardent
Young men who turn their backs on these
false shows and go straightway to ma
ture will come out best in the long run.
They will have made good and sub
stantial living, whilst the spendthrifts of
the towns are still wondering, with
empty heads and purses, how it can be
done. The South and Northwest still
offer welcome, and the generous soil yet
contains rewards for those who are de-
serving.-Farm and FireSide.