The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-03-21
Ghe @armer,
A SERMON ON MUD.
why Good Roads Would Make Life in
the Country Much PlenSauter.

In long prayer at "Wednesday even
ing meeting lady addressed the Almighty,
offering, as We are prone to do, various
criticisms. Among the counts in her in
dictment was one upon which she arraign-
ed Providence with great severity. 1t
was that he saw fit to infict upon the COM
munity so much mud Her words ran
something like this "No matter how
much may clean, my house is continually
tracked with mud; my porches are kept in
a filthy condition; my carpets are filled
with dust that spoils them and can't keep
my house neat. Its nothing but mud,
mud. mud = When she had finished
several other of the good ladies present
gave voice to fervcnt "Amens = But be-
fore the meeting was dismissed the pastor
rose and remarked: ~ cannot close this
meeting without saying that God is not
responsible for the mud If 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 reasen that the men who live
there know enough to use the intelligence
God has given them in building good
roads.
That pastor was right. 1t is man and
not God that makes the mud The sooner
the women whose houses are kept in Il
filthy condition and whose backs always
ache from constant but futile efforts to
keep those houses tidy, realize this fact the
sooner will the remedy be applied. If the
wives, instead of asking the Lord at the
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 necessities of road improvement and
the evils of mud, results would soon begin
to appear The Lord helps those who
help themselves
Mud ''grinded in" the carpets does more
to wear those carpets out than the patter
of dozen generations of tiny feet. And
it wears out the 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 happiness out of her heart, but she will
never get that mud out Of the carpet until
she puts shovel into her husbands hands
and makes him 30 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 farmer
wife. She is as much interested in its
adjustment from the roads AS she as in its
exile from the parlor, and would be, even
if the two were not connected by an end
less chain of footsteps. For four months
in the year Il woman living in the country
might as well be locked in Il prison with
her family, so far as seeing new faces or
having any social intercourse is concerned, "
said one. And it is true. Who is the
jailer? Mud What woman, after try
ing days work at the countless things
which keep the country housewife busy
would not be glad for an opportunity to
drive to neighbours or to an entertain
ment in the nearest village, 1t would
certainly be welcome relaxation aud a
beneficial variation of the grinding mo-
notony of life in farm house kitchen.
But what woman would not rather do
without the relaxation and allow the mo-
notony to 30 unbroken than to feel that
when she asked her husband TO crafty her
wish she was asking him to undertake a
really formidable task.
To "harness up and drive for mile or
two on 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
20 splash into a river of mud and send
blotches of it flying over everything in the
vicinity, including the people they are
drawing with so much difficulty, and when
Il drive of few miles means an hour or
two on the road Instead of few minutes,
then the experience is robbed of its
pleasure The chances are that by the
time the farmer and his wife have arrived
at their destination they will be exasperat-
ed with the roads, with themselves and
with life The conversation with host 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 before he can go to bed, and the
wife. more tired than cheered by the visit,
thinks of her life in a 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 i'll natured words
suggested by their general depression.
Mud is a great promoter of family jars.
But if instead of quarreling with each
,ther because the roads were muddy, the |
armer and his wife. would logically look
INTO the situation, they would soon see the
.eal state of affairs They would see that if
he money and labor expended on the
Dads to make them muddy were intelli-
.ently applied, with the object in view of
making them dry, the object could be very
asiIy accomplished and the quarrels
voided. And they would see that not
My would the quarrcls be avoided, but
hat the farmer would be able to haul more
roduce to market with fewer horses and
,ss wear and tear on wagons aud harness;
hat the farm could be better worked with
ever men, and that it would therefore
Increase rapidly in value; that social even
lg calls and trips to the nearby village or
ity would be easy and pleasurable, instead
+ hard and tiresome In short, they
-ould see that good roads would change
he whole complexion of life in the rural
istricts, and change it decidedly and un-
for the better
And they would see, moreover, that the
'ortland preacher was right when he said
rat the Lord is not responsible for the
nd