The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-10-02
TALKS WITH THE BOYS
q Matter Which Should Be Care
fully Investigated.
Esasous why Farmers Sons Are Not Salts
Hed with Their Surroundings 49, How
This Unpleasant Condition of Things
Might Be Remedied.
tDetroit Free Press


This paragraph or a portion Of it Is GER
tain to be found in four out of every five
letters received from the country, and ii is
n matter which should be investigated
Our. statesmen and journalists and philan-
thropists are continually p~raisiug agricult-
ure as a vacation, and the idea that tho
farmer is independent and happy prevails
in every story of rural life.
What has dissatisfied farmers sons?
Why is it that so many Of them want To
leave the farm for any work which will
bring them a livingy In most cases the
trouble will be found with the farmer in
stead Of his son.
1t is a curious position in which an old
fashioned farmer and his son are placed.
The old man is content with some improve
ments on the ideas OF fifty years ago. He
Can't SEQ why any one should want any
thing better than bare floors, Windsor
Chairs and cowhide boots. He would as
soon go to meeting without q collars as wiki
one. He 'rayther likes the music Of an
organ, but if he buys an organ he
won't feel like building that addition
10 the barn He can't really see how.
any one can sit down and get interested
in books, and why Henry and William
should want "real cloth" collars and cuffs.
is a deep c~onundrum. When eight o'clock
comes he gets ready for bed, and he Can't
see how the boys and girls can ''abear''
company who keep them up until ten. The
FARM is conducted after the fashion of a
quarter of the last century. The house
mo En vofrA.I ,,u, -, g. x-o--- I,% Ab,.
chances are that it is allowed to 90 ten.
The barns have needed repairs for years
past, but it's cheaper to lose a ton of hay
by ,the-lsaks than to buy new shingles,
The fences are rotting down, but next
winter will be a good time to split rails.
There are half a dozen panes Of glass
needed about the house, but if the broken
lights be renewed they might be smashed
again. The democrat wagon has been
about worn out" for the last FIVE years,
and that's the excuse for not having it
painted. The harnesses will hardly hold
together, but they must answer for
another year.. TIE boys are held. to "servgs
their time,n like so many slaves or con-
Yicts, and the amount of cash finding its
way into their pockets yearly would not
keep a bootblack in stock to do business.
Is the picture overdrswni / can add
twenty per cent. to the strength Of each
assertion and then not exceed the truth.
The number of farmers sens who are
leaving home, either with a h~alf-hearted
consent, or running away, is greater than
you dream Of. They flock to the towns
and cities to learn trades; to accept of me-
NAL positions; to take any work which
win pay their way and prevent the neces-
sity Of returning to farm work.
Ia farmer who realizes this must ask
himself where the Lame lies, and then
seek . remedy. Is there q REMEDY? Let
as see.
In The first place, farmers sons are over
worked. There is no doubt that the farmer
Is, too, but that doesn't alter the case.
When you ront a boy of fourteen, sixteen,
or eighteen out OF bedat 4:3O or five O'CLOCK
in the morning, and work him till seven or
half-past, you are making a white slave Of
him. You not only perl his health, but
you deform his body. That's the cause of
SO many sons Of farmers being lop-shoul-
dered, ~bow-backed or otherwise deformed.
and the origin can be traced to over-exer-
ton while growing,
! There isn't q farm in this country on
which the hours Of labor couldn't be short
ened to ten hours without causing a loss oil
twenty-five dollars per year. IL ten hours
u enough for q ditch-digger il is all that a
Farmers SON should be called upon to en-
dure. Ii there are two hours between six
O'Clock and darkness on a summers even
Ing the boy can take up a book or paper,
Or put il to good use in some other way.
AS il Is now, he knows he is expected to
slave from daylight till dark, and when
night comes he is weary in body and ag-
gravated in spirit
And the remedy Is not altogether in
shortening the hours Of work. The boys
must have things to interest and amuse
them. They want books, magazines and
newspapers. nthere's a chance to Ak IN
q bowling alley let the boys 20 ahead and
make one. The game Of bowls Is a healthy
exercise, and furnishes plenty Of sport. II
one Fl the boys has q taste for music help
him on with IT. Let him have a fiddle,
accordion, organ, or whatever instruments
he feels be can bring music out OF. Both
boys and girls should be tncourgged to
sing. To this end they shoula15e encour-
aged 70 set up singing classes, which might
meet around from house to house. Al
young peoples social club, to meet ia the
same manner, woald prove very interest
ing.
The farm can 10 made pleasantes than