The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-04-18
Boys on the Farm.

An exchange recognizing the gen.
eral disposition of farmer boys to
leave their country homes and drift
to the cities, where they are in dan
ger of eking out a miserable exist
ence as poorly paid clerks, unsuc-
cessful physicians, or clientless law
yers, endeavors to suggest remedy.
1t assumes that none of the respon-
sibility for this unfortunate condi-
ton of affairs rests upon the parents.
1t argues on the supposition that
father and mother are anxious to
keep the boys on the farm, regard
with displeasure their yearning for
the more varied scenes of the city,
and send them forth on their quest
after fortune with many misgivings
and deep SORROW
1t is suggested to parents that one
way to attach the boys to the farm
is to identify them with it by paying
them wages from their childhood, of
tightening the monotony of their life
by giving them frequent holidays
wherein they may visit the outer
world and learn something of its
hollowness as well as of its pleas
ures, making home the centre of all
innocent pleasures and youthful de-
lights, treating them as rational be-
ings ought to be treated, ministering
to their spiritual and intellectual ma
lures as well as to their merely phys
ical organism.
1t is also suggested that when they
are nearing manhood it would be
well to give them portions of the
farm for their own, to help them to
erect little cottages to which in the
fullness of time they may bring the
girls of their choice, and, in general,
to do all things that will tend to
discourage the rowing notion, that
will identify them with the farm on
which they were born, that will lead
them to believe that duty and self
interest require them to remain In
the occupation which their parents
have dignified and which has been
commended by the best minds OF
all ages as the most natural, and it
is the most useful employment OF
mankind.
This is good advice. Doubtless
it is the hardness, the monotony, the
everlasting grind year in and year
out of the average farm life which
drives many of the children of farm
ers to leave the country in disgust
and seek employment at less renu-
nerative occupations. 1t is probably
true that the farmer who never
adorns the hard labor of daily life
with any of the flowers of culture
which are now accessible to all,
whose home lis plain and uncom-
Portable, whose ideas all run to util-
ity unembeilished by beauty, will
lose his children, as he deserves to
lose them. The immortal spirit is
not content to feed on mere material
husks.
But our observation has forced us
to the conclusion that the restless
spirit which drives young men who
would have made successful farmers
into occupations in which they mis-
erably fail, is often fostered by the
parents themselves. They look with
satisfaction upon their broad acres,
il is true, but they would spare their
boy the toilsome lot which has been
theirs. They have had enough to
eat and wear, but they have had lit
tie leisure and few enjoyments.
They are ambitious that their boy
shauld shine among men. They
find teachers and others who have
not the courage or the honesty to
tell them the truth about their boy,
or to unfold to them the difficulties
which will confront or the strong
chances that his life as profession.
al man will result in disastrous fail
ure. And so they encourage him to
look forward to the moment when
he will leave the old home to become
man among men. With such
teaching the boy grows up with
contempt for the toilsome and limit
ed life of his parents, and at the ear
liest moment shakes the dust of the
farm from his feet and plunges into
the great maelstrom of the world.
He must be strong swimmer in
deed if he succeeds in breasting its
swift current.
1t is natural that parents should
be proud of their children and con-
fident of their ability to excel. But
it is wise to bring them up to hon.
est toll. The farmer boy who has
been trained from his earliest mo-
ment of conscious existence to re-
gard his fathers business as his
own, will find his way into a pro-
fession in good time if nature has
called him in that direction. 1t
should be the duty of parents to dis
courage notions which may tend to
produce idleness, dissipation and
failure. The man who knows how
to run a farm is never in want of a
situation in this country. If he pos
sesses all the virtues and abilities as
man which his parents see in him
as boy, he will be sure to rise in
the world.