The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1883-03-01
The Old Rail Fence.

1ne placing OF DarDeQ wire fences
around farms, usurping the place
of the old rail fence, destroys half
of the pleasure of farming. There
is something in the old rail fence
that is real comfortable, and the
barbed wire fence is forbidding,
cold, repulsive. Until you come
to think of it, there does not seem
as though there was a great deal of
solid comfort in a rail fence, but
there is. Did you ever see two old
farmers leaning against a rail fence,
whiting, and talking politics or a
horse trade for hours together?
They are more comfortable, and rest
more than if they were occupying
the softest sofa, or the best stuffed
arm chair in the world. There are
so many shapes man can get into,
to rest, about a rail fence. First
the farmer will fold his arms and
rest them on the top rail, and lean
his breast on the fence, and talk for
half an hour, until his legs are tired,
then he will step one foot up on the
second rail from the bottom, and
stand and whittle for half an hour,
until the top of the rail is as pol
ished as a piece ofmahogany. Then
he will change feet and lean one ell
bow 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 was 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 4th, and how, if he
wasn't fixed just as he is, and,
wanted the twenty dollars boot
money to send Nathan off to the Sc
lect school, there is no man on
earth that could buy that mare.
Then he will get tired and stand
around sideways, put his left arm
up on the fence, and begin to whit
tie again, and swear the man that
runs the cheese factory. down at
the corner is skinning us farmers
out of our eye teeth. Without. go
ing into details as to nipety-nine
other combinations by which farm
er can rest on, about or against a
rail fence, it may not be out of place
to speak of sitting on top of a fence.
The farmers, after trying several
will instinctively climb
up the fence and rest on the top
rail, their feet resting on the third
rail from the top, which is always
laid with projection enough to make
good footing, and an hour will pass
rs the fellows talk of the times
when they settled in the country,
and of the hardships they endured,
and how the children have grown
up and gone away, and the CONVEX
satIon will drift in a sleepy channel,
and the sun will begin to sink in
the west, and the horny-handed
sons of toll will suddenly remem
Der that the chores are to be done,
and with a goodnight, Lige," and
a Drop around agin tomorrow,
Ike" they will separate and one
will take a milk pail and a 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 splendid,
easy visit on the old rail fence
Peck.