The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-04-25
A SERMON ON MUD.
why Good Roads Would Make Life in the
Country Much PIeasanter.

| Country Much Pleasanter.
In long prayer at Wednesday even
ing meeting a lady addressed the AL
mighty, offering, as we are prone to do,
various criticisms Among the counts
in her Indictment was one upon which
she arraigued Providence with great
severity. 1t was that he saw fit to inflict
upon the community so much mud. Her
words ran something like this: mo
matter how much may clean, my house
is continually tracked with mud; nv
porches are kept in a filthy condition;
my carpets are filled with dust that
spoils them and | can't keep my house
neat. It's nothing but mud, mud, mud!
When she had finished several other of
| the good ladies present gave voice to
ferveut 'Amensr' But before the meet
ing was dismissed the pastor rose and re-
marked: | cannot close this meeting
without saying that God lis not respon-
sible for the mud. II there were no
men there would be no mud. and there
need be none even now that there are
men. In Portland, Oregon, where it
rains six months in the year, there is no
mud, for the simple reason that the men
who live there know enough to use the
intelligence God has given them i'll
building good roads.
That pastor was right. 1t is mau and
not God that makes the mud. The
sooner the women whose houses are
in filthy condition and whose backs
always ache from constant but futile
efforts to keek those houses tidy, realize
this fact the sooner will the remedy be
applied. If the wives instead of asking
the Lord at Wednesday night prayer
meetings to dry up the mud, would hold
little meeting in the family sitting
room every night, and preach a short
sermon to their husbands on the necessi-
ties of road improvement and the evils
of mud results would soon begin to APP
pear. The Lord helps those who help
themselves.
Mud "grinded I'M the carpets does
more to wear those carpets out than the
patter of dozen generations OF tiny
feet. And it wears out patience and
health of the housewife quicker than it
does the carpets She may sweep and
brush and scrub until she sweeps holes
in the carpets, scrubs the paint off
the floors, and alas, sweeps and brushes
and scrubs the bloom off her cheeks the
brightness out of her eyes and the hap
piness out of her heart, but she will
never get that mud out of the carpet
until she puts a shovel into her hus
bands hands and makes him go and use
it on the roads. and by intelligent work
strike at the root of the evil by making
them SO hard and smooth that they
won't generate the mud in the first
place.
Nor is the house the only place where
mud engulfs the happiness Of the far
mer's wife. She is as much interesI ed
| i'll it's adjustment from ohe roads as
she is III lis exile from the parlor, and
would be, even il the two were not con-
nected by an endless chain of footsteps.
"For four months in the year woman
living in the country might as we'll be
far as seeing new faces Or having any
social intercourse is concerned" said
one. And it is true. Who is the iailel?
Mud. What woman, after trying
/ \ l. 81, l.,
keep the country housewife busy, would
not be glad fer an opportunity to drive
to neig!i boris or to an entertainment in
the nearest village. 1t would certainly
be welcome relaxation and beneficial
variation of the grinding monotony of
life in farm house kitchen. But what
woman would not rather do without the
relaxation and allow the monotouy to
go unbroken than to feel that when she
asked her husband to crafty her wish
she was asking him to undertake a real
ly formidable task.
To harness up and drive 70: mile ur
two Gil q pleasant spring evening over
clean hard roads would be pleasure to
both husband and wife But when the
, roads are SO muddy that the jaded horses
can barely pull the wagon along; when
: with every step the horses take their
hoofs 60 splash into river OF mud and
send blotches of it flying over everything
in the vincinity, including the people
they are drawing with so much difficulty
. aud when drive of a few miles means
au hour or two on the road instead of a
, few minutes, then the experience is rob
bed of its pleasure. The chances are
that by the time the farmer and his wife
have arrived at their destination they
will be exasperated with the roads, with
| themselves and with life. The CONVEX
sation with hosts and hostess will be
half hearted. When the time comes to
return home, and the farmer thinks of
the half hour or hour he will have to
spend rubbing the dirt off his horses be-
fore he can go to bed, and the wife,
, more tired than cheered by the visit,
thinks of her life in sea of mud, it is
more than probable that they who really
love and honor each other will not try
, very hard to keep back the ill natured
words suggested by their general de-
preston. Mud is d great promoter of
family jars.
But if instead of quarreling with each
other because the roads were muddy the
farmer and his wife would logically look
into the situation, they wood soon see
the real state of affairs. They would see
that if the money and labor expended on
the roads to make them muddy were in
telligently applied, with the object in
view of making them dry, the object
could be very easily accomplished aud
the quarrels avoided. Aud they would
see that not only would they be able to
haul more produce to market with fewer
!, horses and less wear and tear on wagons
| and harness; that the farm could be
better worked with fewer men, and that
it would therefore increase rapidly in
value; that social evening calls and trips
to the nearby village or city would be
easy and pleasurable, instead of hard and
tiresome. In short, they would see that
good roads would change the whole COM
| pick ion of life in the rural districts, and
change it decidedly and undoubtedly
and for the better.
And they would see, moreover, that
the Portland preacher was right when