The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-09-14
DISCONTINUED FARMERS.
Persons Who FooIishIy Look at the DARK
Side Of Agricultural Life.

! There are great many insists In
this world. A bright, witty woman
once remarked of those married couples
who sought disunion in the courts, that
! they were misfit couples, and surely
this term may be applied to those farm
ers who have got into business I'M
suited to their character and habits,
and in which they chafe themselves,
and live under the dark shadow of dis
content. Contentment is a spring of
happiness, and happiness in ones vo-
cation is the secret of success. Riches
and the means of extravagant living
are not often possible to the farmer;
plain Sufficiency, abundance even of all
the necessaries and many of the COM
/ forts of life farmer may have, but the
empty superficial pleasures of society,
! the gossip and frivolous employment
which some call society" are scarce
| ly consistent with farm life. When
these are thought to be the sum of hap
/ piness, then one pines in what has
been called the dreary isolation of farm
| life, and cOntentment vanishes, with
all the brightness which it brings TO
the life. There is no dreariness or iso-
1 lation when a farmer and his family
''shut up in measureless content find
| within their narrow environments all
that is pleasing TO an intelligent mind,
in the contemplation of all the beauties
| and wonders of nature, in the exercise
of the field and garden, in the studies
and pleasing discoveries which are
made day by day, and in the sweet
restorer, balmy sleep which is enjoyed
nowhere else so fully as on farm.
The man or woman who is a misfit
farmer or farmers wife is to be pitied,
not because farm life is not desirable,
but because the disposition to enjoy it
! and make the most of it is wanting,
and this casts dark shade over the
life, however. one NAV be situated.
Once saw a cross child given bright
! toy; it was one that opened with
spring and let loose a gaily dressed
figure. The child in its petulence
threw the toy from him with
force enough to loosen the cover, and
out burst the figure. Here was a rev.
citation. a discovery of something
which startled the mind and gave rise
to pleasurable surprise. The child in
stantly changed from frOwns TO smiles;
the tears were dried. and with cry of
| iov, the cast-off toy was picked up and
examined and its nature pried into and
every discovery was a pleasure. Just
so in large way the mistitfarmer may
at some time, and generally does
| sooner or later, makes the same dis
covery that he is at fault. and that he
has been casting from J n in disgust
many enjoyable opportunities and
| privileges which he could find no.
| where else. He has been living in
darkness because he has shut his eyes
TO the light. Sometimes this is true
of the farm wife, and with her all the
family are made miserable. The
children then look forward with hope
and anticipation to the time when they
can flee from the farmhouse which has
been dark and dreary to them, and by
and by one by one they disappear. and
the old couple alone, seek enjoyment in
their own misery and pass their old age,
like Bunyan's Giant, blind and help
less. full of spite and rage, because
every passer-by seemed happy and was
beyond his reach. Such life makes
the boys leave the farm. and the girls
are in haste to follow them. 1t is not
the land or the soil; it is the men who
have been misfitted to it, or perhaps
the women who have made their labors
| dOubly hard by their own discomfort
and fretting and have worn out their
| life in misery.
How can it be altered? Is it not
hard for a mans disposition to be
| changed? A word does it sometimes,
bright thought breaking in upon the
mind; reflection, as it were, from
mirror, which shows the man his fault;
but it must come from without; il can
not spring from within. No man was
ever converted from the error of his
ways by slow process of self-reason-
ing. But he has been brought up ''all
standing" as it is said, by sudden
thought or circumstance. Now, let this
farmer who feels that he is living on
the dark side of his occupation, begin
to think of the purpose of every act
and work of his; to study the princi-
Piles of his work; ask himself why this
is and how that is. When he sees the
seed he has sown terminating and
sending up its spire and down its rad
icle; or the trees and plants only few
days ago dead and lifeless, now break
ing into leaf and bloom; or the insects
which buzz and seem TO enjoy them
selves about him; or how all living
things appear to live in the light and
sunshine, let him ask how it is that all
nature is so beautiful so well ordered.
so amenable to the strictest law and
order, and so happy, if it is not that
some most beneficent wisdom has made
every thing work together for mans
happiness, and that if a man is not
happy it is his own fault, and if he will
only take the right way of doing it. he
may clear away the clouds from his
life and be as happy as man can be.
if he will only not be misfit, but fit |
himself completely to his circumstances J