The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-12-04

Your Lecturer is before you today to
apologize for making a sad mistake at
our last county meeting, when he said
that the greatest question for the farm
ers to consider was the renovation or
retaining our gully-washed and ex.
hausted lands. 1t was my honest.
convictions then, but have seen my
sad mistake.
| am more thoroughly impressed
now that the greatest question for the
farmers to consider is the raising and
training of his children. To mor
fully fit and prepare them to take their
places at maturity as good and worthy
citizens; to take the places of the pres
ent generation as fathers and mothers,
imbued with the principles of our
order, honesty, virtue, purity and
truth.
Yes, this is the question first above
all others, in your humble Lecturers
opinion, for our careful consideration.
Brethren, have you ever stopped to
think of it Who it is that fills Dull
prisons, both county and state; from
what class do they come in the main :?
You see them brought by the sheriff
from the ~jail-cells into our courts of
justice, charged with all the crimes
known and found on the criminal
dockets. Are they lawyers sons, are
they doctors and preachers sons,
mainly?
No; not by any means. While
these make up the exception, the ma
jority are farmers and laborer's sons;
and doubly sad it is, their daughters
are not exempt. This state Of things
ought not to be. Where has the bur
den of the poets song gone! That
for health and beauty, as we'll as
peace, purity, virture and happiness,
if to be found in this world, are ex-
pected and looked for in the home of
the farmer. Do we find it so? In
bated breath the question answers it.
self, mournfully, sadly-No! Is this
right? Is it as it should be? If not,
who is to blame? You, fathers and
mothers, you are to blame. You
have failed in your duty to yourselves
and to your children. You have
failed in restraining waywardness, in
making impression for good at the
right time. How sad it is to see the
conduct of some Of our youths, and
the fruits thereof. Beardless boys are
found before the courts, in our jails,
in State prisons, serving their terms
the penalty of crime; farmers and
laborer's sons in the main.
Who is to blame ? | fear the fathers
and mothers are. When in Raleigh
last August, at the Farmers Alliance
Convention, [ visited the penitentiary;
! wanted to see the faces of the white
convicts for an object lesson. l saw
boys yet in their teens whose heads
and faces did not Indicate the consti-
tutional rascal and criminal any more
than a like number will who are at
their homes and at liberty. Then the
thought, like "Vanquos ghost" would
not down at my bidding, but would
press the question, who is to blame for
this blamable shame? Who" is re-
sponsible for this? who is? The
father. and mother, to a great extent,
| fear. There is an awful response
bllity resting somewhere, and Mr..
President, it occurred to me then and
[ am Of the same opinion now, that
the ends of justice would be more
fully met and better served if some of
the fathers and mothers were there in
place of their boys, for those boys
were there, [ fear, paying the penalty
of parents neglect. Why be surprised
at this? Why be abashed, when we
see boys, beardless boys, 60 when and
where they please, unrestrained; in
suit old men at their will, faces red
with whiskey, a bottle in one pocket
and a pistol in another, a double
bladed spur on their heels, pant legs
in their boots and hat rim turned up
in front, with damnation depicted in
their faces, their wills set ON rolicing
and crime.
Are not such sights as this common?
Yes, sorry to say, too common. Whose
boys are they? Mr.. President and
brethren, they, in the main, are farm
ers' and laborers' boys. Do we realize
it? Look at that father, whether he
lives in an hovel or owns a mansion,
and note the impulse of his heart, his
admiration of his own dear little boy;
how he is delighted with every adj
vancement the innocent little fellow
makes; how that father pictures to
himself the model man his own poor
boy will make. If you want to insult
him, just tell him his dearest idol will
some. day be the occupant of a jail-cell