Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1883-11-08
LIFE ON THE FARM.

that is heard now and then in America.
II would probably be heard in no
other country short of Algiers. In
the best, at least, of the older coun-
tries, the tradesman, the teacher, the
mechanic-not 10 say the commercial
traveler-would congratulate himself
on the good fortune that promoted
him TO the social standing Of freehold
farmer, even though his acres should
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 oyeralls is q
backwoods notion. If it has had any
Influences il doubtless has had-in
beguiling young men from the farm
TO the shop, the mill and the Office, it
will not have it much longer. As q
new-country sentiment il will go the
way of the log cabins and corduroy
roads.
Unfortunately there have been bet
ter reasons than this why even the
boys bred on the farm have been SO
disposed 10 run away from it. The
two things which, more than all others,
make boys displeased with the farm
and girls turn TO city suitors is the
lonesomeness of farm life and the
drudgery of il.
Young folks of the American type
have not found enough social stimulus
in the scant opportunities of the win
ter singing-school, the Fourth of July
celebration, the autumnal fair, and the
political mass meeting. In most farm
houses il has been a rare, if not an un-
heard-of, thing for half dozen I'M
kindred neighbors of both sexes TO be
gathered at the tca-table for sociabil-
ity's sake. Winter evenings have seen
too few indoor gatherings of old and
young for games and songs and read
ings.
The social opportunities of the rainy
day have generally been sought in the
lounging places Of the nearest village.
IL is Of course not so easy to get the
mail or call in the doctor, but no one
expects for that reason to 90 without
newspapers or quinine because he lives
in the country.
There is the district schoolhouse-
how much brighter its desk and walls
would seem TO many a boy and girl
if il were associated with the merry
evening meetings the fall and winter
through-for debates and lectures and
entertainments that il would be in the
power of little home enterprise TO pro-
vide. There has been no need that
farm life should be as lonesome rs the
young folks have sometimes found it.
As to its Observation-Disclosures has
been the past. when there were stumps
to be pulled and mortgages to be lifted
from almost every field; when il was
long way to market, and the buyer
paid for produce in trade 4; when al
most all implements were laboriously
hewn out at home, or clumsily ham,
mercd out by the village blacksmith
there is happily less drudgery on the
farm now and less need of it every
year.
Taking the year through, the work
ing hours on the farm are no longer
than those of the railroad engineer or
artisan in the shop, who has his own
garden to hoe before breakfa or after
supper. The busy lawyer and doctor
in average practice work longer and
harder than the farmer. The grocer,
the editor and the bookkeeper, each
sees less of his children i'm their waking
hours than the farmer who sometimes
envies them their easy time. More
over, within few years labor-saving
machinery has wrought wonderful
change in almost every feature of farm
work. Iron and steel, levers and cogs,
pistons and belts, have taken TO them
selves more than half the backache and
perspiration in farming as it was.
What would the farmer of fifty years
ago have thought of such play as rid
ing sulky plow, Of such recreation as
pitching hay with horse-fork, of such
magic doings as those of the self-bind-
ing harvester, of such a substitute for
the weary fail as the steam thresher.
Since the milk in many localities
goes direct from the barn-yard to the
cheese factory, and not only the mas
culine garments but even female habil-
iments are bought ready made, we
note the greatly improved condition
of the toiling farm wife as well.
The cities and towns are full of men
who once had visions of a business
success that would in monthly profits
put to shame the small savings of a
farmers lifetime. On the home-stretch
Of three score and ten they find them
selves dependent for livelihood on q
salaried position which they hold by
dismally uncertain tenure, or on the
precarious commission of a canvasser
or commercial traveller. In comfort
and in income the lives they have led
make shabby showing compared
with what they might have been as
farmers, fact the young men may
as well consider who are debating
the question whether they will turn
their backs on the farm. He should
think also of the five chances of sue
cess in commercial life, and the ninety
five chances of failure.
The colored people of the Northern
States have singularly ignored farm
ing. While they have justly complain
ed Of the cruel prejudice and ostracism
which have so meanly slammed the
doors of most callings in their faces,
they have strangely turned away from
the one opening which offers the pleas
ATTEST homes, the surest livelihood,
and the greatest immunity from in
suit. They have turned away from it,
too, to crowd into mental callings that
have by their nature helped to perpet-
nate the prejudice against them. For
the country's sake, as well as for their
own, the colored people ought to find
their way to farms Of their own.-
Good Company.