Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-10-27
WHY CHILDREN LEAVE THE FARM.

We commend to the consideration of
our readers some thoughts of Adeline E.
in the R,ral Ne1o Yorker, as to why SO
many of our youths are eager to leave the
farm instead of following the calling of
their fathers and mothers. In the first
place, they are not brought up to love the
country; they are early accustomed to
hear both father and mother grumble
about the hardships of farm life. Then
there is too much work and too little
play for them. The boy works in the
field all day, and his little opportunity
for amusement in the evening is cut short
by long range of "chores" till bed time;
meanwhile the sister has much the same
experience in the house. And no agri-
cultural college in the land will restore
what their parents have blindly allowed
them to lose.
Study the bent of your children. If
a boy hates one kind of farm work and
likes another, don't make him do what
he dislikes all the time, but so far as pos
sible let him do the agreeable work.
When he offers suggestions or forms plans,
don't laugh at him, however impractical
BILE they may be, but if there is anything
in them make the most of it, point out his
mistakes, and encourage him to use his
thinking powers.
Keep your daughter at home by getting
for her as far as you are able, some of the
things she particularly likes-a magazine,
a croquet set or an organ and let her carry
out some of her pet plaEs for improving
the flower garden and front yard. And
if you have given her some domestic ami.
NAL, and allowed her to pet it and regard
it as her very own, don't sell it and pocket
the money. Let her keep it and dispose
of it as she will. Let gift always be a
real one.
Don't drive your children about farm
work, but teach them and train them so
that they may consider it happiness to
follow in your footsteps. Teach your
girls to discriminate between a dude or
tailor-made man and one made by the
Almighty, at the same time teach your
boys to dress better, and, if possible see
that they have means of doing so. A
Sunday suit and a working suit, which is
more than likely patched and faded, are
not enough. Let each have another cor
responding to the business mans every
day suit in town; so that, when he goes
away from home on week day he may
neither feel humiliated by his old clothes,
which are good enough to do work in, or
feel. foolish in his Sunday best on COM
mon occasion.
Teach your children to be proud of farm
life for its independence, freedom from
petty annoyances and temptations, and
its Importance as one of the worlds indus
tries.
Another essential plan is to give ambi-
tious children some piece of ground to
cultivate for their own, or something in
which they take a great personal interest,
and from which they have the income to
use as they please. And in everything
about the farm, try to show them the rea-
son of f. 'ngs and processes, that they may
feel - they are learning, and that the
farmers lot need not be one of ignorance.
LASTLY, the social longings of young
people must be gratified. Provide them
with plenty of good reading matter, and
encourage all legitimate, literary, musi-
cal and social entertainments. Youth is
not intended to be without society, and
ought not to be.
TONsORIAL POINTs.-"I learned my
trade forty years ago in Boston," said a
leading barber to me the other day, as he
trimmed my hair, "and it is surprising
how long a fashion in hair or whiskers
will last. Ten years is about as long as
a fashion in coats can live, but in my bus
mess style of hair or whiskers will last
two or three times as long. Take mus
taches, for instance. They came in about
twenty-five years ago. l can remember
very we'll when mustache was regarded
as the badge of a fop, an idiot or a gambler.
It was as much as mans reputation was
worth to let the hair grow on his upper