Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1893-01-19
FARMER JENKINS ON MARRIAGE.
BY DAVID q. METCALF.

is marriage iailure?" this is what
Farmer Jenkins read
In the welcome daily papers, as he leisnrely
rubbed his head,
For he was sorely puzzled that they pub
lished such ''tarnal stuff"
As he called it, for that question had by
him been solved enough.
Then he rose from out his armchair, took
his cob pipe OFF the shelf,
Filled it, lit it, and, reseated, soliloqused
thus to bimsef:
Pears to me these daily papers mighty
hard up for the news,
Thus to publish sich sheer nonsense, and
hold out sich dismal views
About marriage as failure, when it's sartin
i kin show
That sich views are all tomfoolery, for
speak OF what know.
Now thar is Mary Ann an /, tits fifty years
since we war wed,
An still we act like young 'uns, 'cept fool
ish things are left unsaid;
An twelve young children bless our union !;
now I'd like to know
II ms .riage is IA failure when sich lot we
show,
All healthy men and women, with children
of their own;
grandchildren call me blessed, as they'd
king upon throne.
Upon this farm we've spent our days, an
saw our children grow
Like weeds in that ar corn field, and Joy
was ours to know.
Ill.
''Since fust we war iined in wedlock, all diff
fikilties we went through,
As calmly an serenely as yon young moon
in heavens blue;
Divorces then war something new, for them
we had no need,
But in this age it's awful, the likes l never
seed.
afraid to wash;
But now adays gals seem to shirk all OF
these AR things, by gosh!
II they was now like her I'm willing to de-
clare
Thar'd be no divorce mills a-grindin' aroun'
us anywhar';
Thar'd be no couples getting loosed, but
they'd stick fast as glue.
An then, p'raps they'd be more wise, an
know a thing or two;
An if they'd study human natur' an look
before they leap,
They'd stick like Mary Ann an /, our mar
riage VOWS to keep.
Nv.
They think we are old fogies, an have
That times are wiser now than then, an
our advice refuse;
But one thing sartin do know, if marriage
is failure now,
It's cause they do their courtin' wrong, or
p'raps they don't know how.
Some gals now play the pianer, an don't
know how to cook,
An half the time they're sitting reading
some tarnal, trashy book;
Now, il they'd learn to wash and cook, an
also how to sew,
They'd soon a loyal husband find in some
admirirg beau;
But il too wise to heed advice, the young
men counted in,
II marriage is failure then, theirs is a
beastly sin.
BY long experience do we know, both Mary
Ann an i,
That marriage is no failure, an we stick
till we die"
Then Farmer Jenkins upward rose from his
armchair with ease,
Tho three score years and ten had passed.
while the soft, signing breeze
Famed his silvery locks OF wavy hair back
from IA cheerful face,
That beamed with a fond tenderness beside
the old fireplace,
And laid the cob pipe on the shell, as his
wife said with smile:
.'Why, John. you seem in a brown study
and musing all this while.'
"'Tis nothing, Mary Ann" said he, but
something have read
Bout marriage as a failure; they don't
know how to we'd;
Or else like you an 1 they'd to their VOWS
be true,
As we for fifty years have been meath Gods
own vault of blue
And o. 'er the aged couple shone the fireside's
cheerful blaze,
In the Joy of their declining years-the
golden autumn of their days.