St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-08-14
DISCONTINUED FARMERS.


Side ofsAgricultural Life.
There are great many mistits 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 extravaganza living
are not often possible to the farmer; q
plain sufficiency, abundance even of all
the necessaries and many of the COM
forts of life a 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-
lation when 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 q 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 may be situated.
Once saw cross child given bright
toy; it was one that opened with q
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 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
joy, the cast-off toy was picked up and
examined and its nature pried into and
every discovery was pleasure. just
so in large way the misfitfarmer 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 him 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-ty 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,
a bright thought breaking in upon the
mind; a reflection, as it were, from a
mirror, which shows the man his fault;
but it must come from without; it 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
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