The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1883-03-01
Leaving the Old Farm.

Sampson Atkins. q farmer near Circlevile
O., hung himself because he was compelled U
move OF farm on which he had lived since
childhood.-Exchange.
And still there are people who Will
60 on wondering and inquiring how to
keep the boys on the farm. Here IS a
man who had grown up with the old
farm and become SO attached to, that to
leave the scenes of his boyhood broke
his heart, and he hid his grief in sui
cide's grave. There is no sense in talk
ing about how the boys may be kept on
the farm. To be sure, farm life is not
one continual circus day, as in the city,
nor fourth of July, and farmers can
make their sons hate the old farm home
by subiecting them to all manner OF
drudgery, the same as they would pair
of yearling steers, and expect them to
wear the yoke, and never make kick.
The man alluded to above, had grown
up on the farm. He was somebody's
son, and no doubt, in his boyhood days
he often had a sort of yearning to leave
the old farm and 90 away TO the city,
and put on boiled shirt and smoke ci-
| gars, and amass fortune. But he stuck
TO the old farm, and when he was final
ly obliged to leave it, the thought was
too much and he took his own life rath-
| er than 90. No doubt when he thought
of leaving the old place, the scenes OF
| his boyhood' bappiest hours would arise
| up before him, and he could see, IN
! looking back DER lifetime spent on
| the old farm, the same narrow winding
| lane through which he trudged, when
| boy, over the grass and stubble covered
! with the heavy dew and frost of early
morning, and the thought of how he
| placed his bare foot down on the early
| humble bee which nestled among the
| clover blossoms and sang its morning
song, came back TO him with the old
| time vigor The thought of leaving the
/ dear old home, around whose cheerful
| fireplace he had spent many a happy
| evening and then went to bed of feath-
| ers beneath rafters laden with dried
/ pumpkin and catnip, and seed corn and
! cob-webs, and dried apples, was more
! than the poor man could stand. The
| many happy scenes of his boyhood days
/ and the recollections of comfort and
! plenty, on the old place, would admit OF
no thoughts on the drawbacks that had
! sometimes crept in and made him think
/ that life was not worth living for, any
| way. The cares and troubles of farm
/ life were drowned deep in the tide OF
/ pleasant thoughts and he never stopped
| TO think, as he shed tears atparting with
| the dear old farm, of how he had got up
| at four o'clock in the morning and gone
! down to wash ut the pump in the yard,
| when the weather was so cold the soft
soap in the jar by the side of the house
! was frozen solid, and the milk he had
| warmed for the calf, and bran-mash fo1
/ the COWS had TO be broken with fork
! handle before the cattle could eat. it. He
| only stopped to think of the spring time,
! gentle Hannah, when the cows came
! home at night, the taxes were paid, the
| crops nearly in, and everything lovely,
and it is not to be wondered at that the
| poor man felt sad at leaving the old
| home. There is no use talking about
t>sc,,i. LSiIIIr UiIt7s-rr.st
| the roaming fever, but after man has
| been there a lifetime he would exchange
! places with king, and wear a crown,
! and suferwith the gOut and the dyspep-
| sia. There are thousands who know
/ just how that poor man must have felt,
/ and viii pity him, as they know that it is
! often bctterto own three hundred acre
! farm, without mortgage on it, and a
! good, sound constitution. than to be the
! proprietor of millions and brown stone
| mansion, and the consumption.-Peck
! sam