The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1883-03-29
LEAVING THE OLD FARM.

Sampson Atkins, farmer near Circleville, o.,
hung himself, because he was compelled to move
off farm which he had lived since child
hOod.-E1ckdEge.
And still there are people who will 90 on won
dering and nquiring how TO keep the boys on
the farm. Here Is man who had grown up
with the old farm, and became 50 attached to,
that to leave the scenes of his boyhood broke
his heart, and he hid his grief in a suidide's
grave. There is no sense in talking about how
the boys may be kept On the farm. To be sure,
farm life is not one continual circus day, in
the city, nor Fourth of July, and farmers can
make their sons hate the old farm home by sub
jecting them to all manner of drudgery, the
same they wou'd pair of yearlng steers,
! and expect them 10 wear the yoke, and never
make n 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 a yearnIng to leave the old farm, aud
90 away to the city, and put on n boiled shirt,
and smoke cigars, and amass a fortune. But he
stnck to the OLD farm and when he was finally
obliged to leave it, the thought was too much,
and he took his own life. rather than go. No
Doubt when lac thought of leaving the old
place the scenes of bOyhood's happiest hours
would arise mp before him. and he could see, in
locking back DER lifetime spent the old
farm the same narrow, winding lane through
which he trIdged, when boy, over the grass
and stubble covered with heavy dew and frost
of early morning, and the thought of how he
bee, which nestled among the clover blossoms
and sang its morning song, came back TO him
with the Od-time vig0r. The Thought of leav
ing the dear old home, around whose Cheerful
fireplace he had spent many happy evening,
and then went TO a bed of feathers beneath
rafters laden with dried pumpkin and catLip,
and seed corn and cob webs, and dried apples,
was more than the poor man could stand. The
many happy scenes of his bnyhOod days, and
the recnllecti0nS 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, anyway. The and tronbes of farm
life were drowned deep in the tide of pleasant
thoughts, and he never stopped TO think, rs he
shed tears at parting with the dear old farm, of
how he had got mp at four o'clock in the morn
ing and gone down to wash at the pump in the
yard. when the weather cold the soft
soap in the jar by the side of the house was fro
zen solid, and the milk he had warmed for the
calf aud bran-Inash for the COWS, had to be bro
ken with a fork handle. before the cattle could
eat il. 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 il is not to he
wondered at that the poor man felt sad at leav-
ing the old home. There is no use talking
about keeping boys on the farm when they get
the roaming fever, hut after man has been there
a lifetime, he wonld not exchange places with
a king, and wear a crown, and suffer with the
CONT and the dyspepsia. There are thousands
felt. and will pity him, as they know that it is
often better Ia own a thrre hundred farm,
without having a mortgage ON it, and a good.
sonnd constitution. than To be the proprietor of
millions and Il brown stone mansion. and the
consumption Pccks San.