The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1882-03-16
The GnNien ma Railroads.

Woman appreciate the benefits of rail.
roads with keener relish than men.
Railroads have brought to women and tc
he family blessings ofa peculiar and
valuable character. Isolation lis tho drear3
lot and portion ef- tho t1raI women OF
America. Tbs Yves of farmers wives ore
dull sn;s insipid; they are without recrea-
ton aud amusement; they are distant from
works and displays Of art and science,
their lot and that OF their children Is one Of
loneliness. For this reason farmers wives
suffer from mental and moral &sariaesss
life loses it's zest Qnl freAlnsSD FOR them,
and their p rhSldse,a Sock 20 the cities to seek
new ways Of industry, enter
prise and enjoyment. Women
feel the need of society more than
men, while they have less opportunities for
social intercourse, and they appreciate it
sharp sense of their need in that respect.
They are more aesthetic; they covet person.
al and household adjournment, and they hsvo
an Unsuitable longing FOR the naeans by which
tne;r tastes may BIZ gratified. All this
would be more and more as it ia, this con-
dition of things would increase and intensi-
fy, but for the civilizing and refining inhu-
ences created by railroads, and but for the
means and facilities for culture atd souial
improvement which they hare created.
The railroads tnake the city and country
neat neighhofs.. They break up the rustic
and old-fashioned habits and
ways of life which :. lave
prevailed on the farms and in tho remote
villages; they are the direct agencies in ed
ucatirg, refining, polishing and eleyatirg g
the classes Of people who have been in tba
past without the possibilities of culture and
refinement. The railroads carry books,
magazines, fresh newspapers, models of
taste and labor, patterns and knowledge
of art, the results of experiment and
science, to the NEST d;stert communities
and to tho scattered homes and fro.sides
through out tho vast areas Of our, common
country. They have removed. from the
ways Of rural life tho curse Of isolation.
and the shacklss which bound: men, women
and children to a sameness OF scene, toll
and effort during their life time, and
from generation to generation.
The railroads have made the country
cosmopolitan, and they have brought every
body within the radius and influence Of the
est singer in the world comes to the rnetrop.
oils, and the railroads make 1t practicable
for thousands from near and fer to listen tc
the miracles of her minstre,sy. The great
orators, through the facilities created by
railroads, visit all the people of the country
at their local centers and places of resort,
or the people are enabled to go long dis
tances to listen to their Arguments and elo-
quence. Famous e1ar and women in oil rro-
tessons Ara no longer strangers to the mass
as of the people. Travel has been cheap
ened and made comfortable and convenient
by the railroads, and it has greatly enlarged
the field of every ones yis;cn,
The women Of to: dag a<s >Has;fypri7ileged
beyond thei. me- ho: s. the list settlers
in the West came IN OK teams, and were six
and eight weeks, or longer, OF tie road
"over the hills and far away, ana they left
in the unapproachable distance behind
them all that was dear and delightful by
association and memory. The railroad has
opened means T transit from, the ;5ast to
the present, frcr tao t&rtheft east to the
ultimate vest. and few hours Or
day or two by rail will carry tie men
and women on the borders of civil
lization, to the scenes Of their
childhood, to @the old folks at home," to
the old homestead and fre-side. Railroads
enable friends and relatives to he set down
at the far distant bedside Of the sick and
dying, and to minister to the cheerless and
AOi1OIu Wherever tUeAf 1OL kim E6 C2St.
Men value railroads because they facili-
tate business, enhance the price of land
promote speculation, and aid in money get
ting. The dollar mark is the mark OF
mans appreciation of railroads. railroads.
are of inestimable ralre tc women, because
they add SO much to the possibilities and
delights Of social intercourse, because
they make rural life pleasant and
diversity it by means of travel and recrea-
ton and create community of interest and
association between city and ootntry, ad-
ding to the polish esd trbanity of one the
natural t:uth and freshness of the other,
and because they introduce the modes and
fashions of polite city society to the homes
in the fields and villages remote from the
noisy and busy centers of population. For
the women, railroads have been an IN
mixed bless ng and benefit in all their re-.
lations to the daily life Of the people.