The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-07-12
HRE Oh aaH FARA
No Longer Buslzsss SeaOad 60 Aay osEns
81. Hut the Sarsss aald Best n an.


No Longer = Buslnss. s<eOad TO Any osI.s
81, Hut the Sarsst alld Best ~ al.
EGood Cempany.I
Nothing but farmers is phras.
that Is heard now and then in America.
It would probably be heard in no other
country short Of Algiers. In the best, at
least, of the older countries the trades
man, the teacher, the mechaaie-not to
say the commercial tEaveler-would con-
gratulate himself on the good fortune
that promoted him 70 the social stand.
ing of . freehold farmer, even Though
his acres should be few enough to be
counted on his fingers.
The notion that the man somehow
stands little higher who wears fine
linen and bends over . counter or desk
than the man. who wears oVer-alls is 4
backwoods notion. If it has had any In
dnence-as it doubtless has had-in be-
quilting young men from the farm TO the
shop. the mill and the office, it will not
have it much longer. As new-eountry
sentiment it will go the way of the log
cabins and the corduroy roads
Unfortunately there have been better
reasons than this why even the boys bred
on the farm have been 80 disposed to run
away from it. The two things which
more than all others make boys displeas-
ed with the farm and girls turn toward
suitors is the lonesomeness of farm life
and the drudgery of it.
Young folks of the American type
have not found enough social stimulus
in the scant opportunities of the winter
singing school, the Fourth of July cele-
bration, the autumnal fair, the political
mass meeting. In most farm houses it
has been II rare If not an unheard of
thing for half q dozen unkindred neigh
bnrs of both sexes TO be gathered at the
tea-tablc simply for sociability's sake.
Winter evenings have seen too few in
door gatherings of old and young for
games and songs and readings.
The social opportunities of the rainy
day have generally been sought in the
lounging places of the nearest village.
1t is of course not 30 easy To get the
mail or call in the doctor, but no one
expects for that reason to go without
newspapers or quinine because he lives
in the country.
There is the district school house
how much brighter its desks and walls
would seeN tai many boy and girl if it
we're associated with the merry evening
meetings, the fall and winter through,
for debates and lectures and entertain
mcnts that it would be in tho power of
little home enterprise to provide. There
has been no need that farm life should
be as lonesome as the young folks have
sometimes found it.
As to its whatever has been
the case in the past when there were
stumps to be pulled and mortgages to be
lifted from almost every field; when it
was long way to market, and the buy
or paid for produce in "trade:" ~kn- -
most all implements were IaboriousIy
hewn out at home or clumsily hammered
out by the village Observation-Disclosures is,
happily less drudgery on the farm now,
and less need of it, every year.
Taking the year through the working
hours of man on farm are no longer
than the railroad engineer or artisan in
the shop who has his own garden to hoe
before breakfast or after supper. The
busy lawyer and the doctor in average
practice work longer and harder than
the farmer. The grocer, the editor and
the book-keeper each sees less of his chill.
dren in their waking hours than the
farmer who sometimes envies them their
"easy time" Moreover, within a few
years labor-saving machinery has wrought
wonderful change in almost every fea-
ture of farm work Iron and steel, levers
and cogs, pistons and belts have taken
to themselves more than half the back
ache and perspiration in farming as it
was.
What would the farmer of fifty years
ago have thought Of such play as riding
a sulky plow, of such recreation as pitch
inc hav nth q hnpao-fOrhp ~ arHnh nnoo-
ic doings as those Of the sef-binding
harvester, of such q substitute foE the
weary fail a. the steam thrasherl
Since the milk in many localities gOea
direct from the barn.yard TO the cheese
factory, and not only all th0 masculine
garments but even feminine habiliments
are bought ready made, We note the
greatly improved condition of the toll
ing farm wife as well.
The cities and towns are full of men
who once had visions Of Q business sue.
cess that would in monthly profits put
to shame the small savings Of q farmers
lifetime. On the homo stretch of thre0
score and ten they find themselves de-
pendent for livelihood on q salaried pO-
sition which they hold by dismally I'M
certain tenure, or on the precarious COM
mission of q canvasser or commercial
traveller. In comfort and in income the
lives they have led make q shabby show
ing compared with what they might
have been as farmers, q fact the young
men may well consider who are debat-
ing the question whether they will turn
their backs on the farm. He should think
also of the "five" chances of success in
commercial life and the "ninety-fVe"
chances of sure failure.
The colored people of the northern
states have singulaTly ignored farming.
While they have justly complained of
the cruel prejudice and ostracfsnn which
have SO meanly slammed the doors of
most callings in their faces, they have /
strangely turned away from the one open
ing which offers the pleasantest homes,
the surest livelihood, the greatest immu-
nifty from insult. They have turned 7
away from it, too, to crowd into mental
caliings that have by their nature help
ed to perpetuate the prejudice against /
them. For the country's sake as well
as their own the colored people ought to
end their way to farms Of theif own