The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-09-25
The Happiest Life.


Philadelphia Telegraph.
There is sufficient fundamental reason for the
preponderance Of the agricultural interest. The
world needs it more than it needs anything else,
and by natural law it gets what it needs. 1t
must do that-or stop-and nature says there
must be no stoppage; the thing must go on,
whether we are, all of US, very proud of it or
not. and the going on business depends more on
the farmer than on anyone else Therefrom we
have a corresponding fundamental fact that the
farmer, being the primal necessary of society.
makes by another natural law the most out of
the need society has of him. The more
Indispensable a thing is. the greater ease
is there In developing it-as the common
phrase goes, IN making living out of it. The
world does not need diamonds, gold plate, bro
cades, laces-and the business of collecting, man.
ufacturing and distributing those commodities
can only be carried on with capital which is in
constant risk, and at great wear and tear of
living force. The nearer we come to nature the
easier life u.s. and the easiest life is the happiest
one Of course, we do not use the word lease
in too liberal sense. The average farmer works
harder than most men, but he wearies only his
muscles-a blessed strain whose end is only
good. implying good appetite and digestion,
and dreamless sleep that is the crown of human
comfort. By lease" we mean not freedom from
work, or from care, for these things are an end
less heritage to be handed downward forever,
but independence The farmer is the most in
dependent man in the world, therefore he is the
happeSt. Entirely Independent of course he is
not. No man can say he can stand quite apart
from others, but the farmer can say it with more
truth than any one else. Nearly everything
necessary to subsistence he has at first hand; he
can even at shift clothe himself, multitudes of
people have done so; and in times of crises he
can subsist without money as well with it,
for one can descend to primitive barterings as
we'll as he. This is to come more nearly to the
true Independent state than any other class of
men come. and the place is reached through the
unqualified need which the world has of agricu-
tural products 1t has need also of shelter and
of clothing but the farmer has these things also
in his own hands. He has the lumber and the
skill with tools; he has wool and wheel-and the
hosts who have lived in Lighthouses, dressed in
homespun, have been as happy as any people in
the world Hon. Warner Miller might have
added some reflections of this
nature to the very sensible ones
he did make in his address to the farmers of
New York He might have said, further, that
| the farmer is blessed in being removed from the
| feverishness of crowds. That there is specula-
ton and rascality of all kinds and grades in the
country life does not affect the main proposition
| There is far less of these things, and no more
| than that is claimed. The reason is on the
| surface. The country life is every way the
| simpler, the more natural life. It is this,
principally, because it is the most sef-support-
| ing The farmer is the happiest man-but he
| does not always know it. You will find every
| where Disconnected farmers; men who are tired
| of this blessed open-air work. who say they are
| lonely who do not appreciate their freedom, and
| who want to leave the farm and come to town.
| But that is only to say that while they are the
freest and happiest Of men, they are not always
| the wsest