The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1885-01-14
Bill APPS Views.

II IS right, | know, for a mat to be
conservative and tolerant and respectfully
considerable of other peoples opinions,
but how can a man be so and take tie
papers. When he reads the nonsense
Of men claiming to be educators he gets
disguised with fools, and when he reads
the venomous lies and ISLANDERS Of polltl-
clans he is equally Disguised with knaves
and so between the two their utterances
10 the public press keeps him vexed
about half the time.
Nevertheless, it is the duty of a good
citizen to keep up with the age IN which
he lives, for he can do something, and it
IS his duty to read and be prepared tor
coming events and raise his voice on the
right side. 1t has been a great draw
back on the south that her people did
not read enough and were too c%ontented
with their ignorance; but they are waking
up now, and you can hardly find a family
in this region that does not take some
paper. | mix with our common people a
| good deal and | know families who take
a paper for the children to read, although
the parents cannot. THIS is all right
aud it is encouraging. After a poor far
mer boy ha. learned to read and write
and cipher, he can get a right good edu-
cation from the papers, and be can get
it cheaper than any other way. | would
rather my boys would depend on three
or four good papers, that would not cost
more than ten dollars a year, than on
fifty dollars worth of Latin and Greek
and algebra and geometry. They vii.
be of more benefit to him in the practical
business of life. OF course, if he is TO
be "a professional man, he must study the
sciences and go to college, but it is ahaz-
zard-a great hazzard-to send a boy to
college, and the reason is plain. -Four years
at school and four more at college takes
eight of the best years of a boys life, say
from II to 20, the very years that his phys
ical system needs physical exercise and
physical training the very years when
his habits of life and for life are fixed /;
the very years when he should mix la
Dor with study and let his brain and his
muscle all work along together and sus-
tain each other. College habits are
habits of physical incidence. A college
boy has no education to work anything
but his brain when he ome away, and
looks around for business. His physical
nature abhors work-he can't standl 1t.
His habits are fixed and habits are as
binding as letters, and he sees nc agree
able opening except the law or medl-
cine or politics, and so the land is full OF
| quacks and ~pettifoggers and small polit-
icians who atflict the people and do no
| good for themselves. These small law
| yers sit around town and watch for strife
among labors like a buzzard watches for
a carcass. They nurse and encourage all
sorts Of petty litigation. The doctors
gallop off to see a sick patient and keep
him sick uutil it takes his little crop to
| pay the bill. The politicians get up a
ruupus in the newspapers and Islander
one another until the people don't know
who to vote for, and they don't care.
And so i tgoes, and it would have been
better, far better, for the whole batch to
have stayed upon the farm and married
clever country girls and gone to raising
children and chickens in an honest and
honorable way. Now if, say if, the
college boys would 90 to farming |
would rejoice to see the boys go to col
lege, for the higher the education the
more refined is the happiness that
knowledge gives and the better farmers
they would make. but they will not.
And for like reasons L have never favor
ed the higher education of the negro.
His race is physically ordained for labor,
muscular labor, and he likes it.