The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-03-27
Leaving the Old Farm.


Sampson Atkins, a farmer near Circlevfiie'
o., hung himself because he was compelled TO
Observation-Disclosures.
And still there are people who will
go on wondering and inquiring how to
keep the boys on the farm. Here is
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 a 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 and go away to the city,
and put on boiled shirt and smoke eli
CARS, and amass fortune But he stuck
to the old farm, and when he was final
~ obliged to leave it, the thought was
too much and he took his own life rath-
"a IMAM ~ nv 0OtADt VII
of leaving the old place, the scenes of
his boYhood' s happiest 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 trndged, when a
boy, over the grass and stubble covered
with the heavy dew and frost of early
morning, and the thought of how ne
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 happy
evening and then went to a 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. rs he shed tears at parting with
the dear old farm, of how he had got up
at four clock in the morning and gone
down to wash at 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 for
the COWS had to be broken with a 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
keeping boys on the farm when they get
the roaming fever, butaafter man has
been there lifetime he would exchange
places with a king, and wear crown,
and sufierwit the govt and the dyspep-
STA. There are thousands who know
just how that poor man must have felt,
and viii pity him, as they know that it is
often betterto own three hundred acre
farm, without a mortgage on it, and a
coed, sound constitution, than to be the
proprietor of millions and a brown stone
mansion and the consumption. - PecE's
sSH0