The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-23
The Farmers Houoa-

The Farmers Home.
Inc home surroundings of the average
farmer OF to-day, are very different from
those OF the farmer of fifty or seventy-five
years ago, says the Rural Home. Bare
walls are now covered with paper-bare
noors have given place to carpets The
open fire place has given room for the
modern stove and range-handsome lamps
have taken the place of the tallow candle,
and 1t is no uncommon thing to see upon the
farmers table, handsome glass and silver
ware. There has been, of course, with all
these modern introductions a considerable
increase in the cost of living. Nice things
cost money and better food costs more than
that which is coarser. In view of all these
extra expenses, we often hear
people exclaim. Oh, for the
good old days of our grandfathers!
But would these same people want to live
and have their home surround ings lust as
they were in those davss 1 hardly think
they would. Not but what the homes of
our grandfathers were happy homes, and
were surrounded with those things which
the progress and civilization of that day
demanded. | believe that the law of progress
Is that it never goes backward and it is just
IN accordance with this onward march that
the surroundings of the farmers home
have kept pace with all those other modern
improvements and inventions, which 60 to
make up an advanced civilization.
The farmers family is better clothed and
fed than in the days of old-but some will
say this is an open question as to whether it
is better or worse for this very fact. The
farmer and his family are better educated
and better informed than in the days of
old. Newspapers and magazines are as COM
mon in the farmers family of to-day as were
open fireplaces and strings of dried apples
in the days of our grandfathers. l think
there is no open question in regard to this
matter. The modern carpets, wall paper,
and other decorations in the farmers home
speak of a more refined and cultivated
taste than did the bare floors and walls of a
hundred years ago. 1t is true we may pos
sess no kinder hearts or kindlier natures
than did our ancestors, but cur surround
ings are certainly more pleasant and at
tractive, at least to us, than were theirs.
We live better, dress better, and of course
spend more money than they did. and in
this very fact, perhaps, lies one reason why
farmers complain so much about hard times,
and are often heard to say there is no money
in farming.
1t is very generally true that our old
time farmers brought up large families.
paid their bills and generally managed to
lay by a little something for a rainy day.
While we farmers of to-day are struggling
along, and find it hard work to make ''both
ends meet" as the saying goes-and yet
think that we of to-day are spending by far
the greater amount of money-and yet not
one of us would desire to be put back with
the surroundings of a hundred years ago,
even if we knew that our bank account
would increase largely as the years go by.
This shows us that the modern attractions
and improvements in the farmers home
life have come to have an irresistible influ-
ence over him, and that they have come to
stay. l am not sorry that this is so. | be-
lieve there is no better standard by which
to judge of the refinement and civilization
of people, than their home life. 1t is
said that home is the dearest spot on earth,
and so it is, and should be.
Then let us do all we can to elevate it and
surround it with everything to make it
pleasant and attractive. While we farmers
cannot possess all the elegance and luxury
displayed in many of the homes of our city
millionaires, yet we can make our homes
nIeesant and attractive
The ladies in the farmers family will at
tend to the interior department, and let us
heartily encourage them in the thousand
and one things they know so well how to
do in the way of decorative art and in
house furnishings. And what is there for
us to do? Why, we can attend to outside
decorations and improvements that will
make the grounds about our dwellings more
pleasant and attractive. There is a quiet
satisfaction in having things look nice,
even though there be no money in it. And
SO l say, if carpets make our rooms more
pleasant and enjoyable let US have them
that is, if we can afford it. If books,
newspapers and magazines are enjoyed
by the family, let's have them. and if public
improvements will beautify and improve
the town in which we live, let US go in for
them, too. In word let us keep up with
the age and civilization in which we are liv-