The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-25
Compensation.

/ This article is written from the quiet
of the farm writes our esteemed con.
! temporary, the editor of Home and
! Farm. Large elm and maple trees of our
| own planting break the rays of sun while
| they admit the breezeS under their over
hanging bOughs, and although mercury
marks ninety-twO degrees in the ,shade
we do not suffer from the heat. The
| morning paper is before us. and as we
read of closing banks, assigning mer-
chants, closed manufacturers and the
tens of thousands of men who are out of
employment, many of them with families
dependent upon their wages, and who
look the future in the face with dread
we thank God that forty years ago when
debating the question of life-work we
were led to choose that of the farmer
There was time, as there is in the lives
of most young men, when the greatest
success seemed to be to get rich, but to-
day we envy no mans wealth, for the ex-
perience and observation which comes
with sixty years of life emphasizes the
truth of scripture, "A mans life con-
sisteth not in the abundance of the things
that he pOSsesseth."
We have realized that a contented mind
is worth more than riches, and that the
term rich is a variable one, one man be-
ing richer with S., 900 than another with
that the care of their property takes all
the comfort and sweetness out their
lives. Colonel Balm, in one of his lee
lures, illustrates this by saying: Il know
a millionaire whose wife has to sit by
him half the night wringing cloths out of
cold water to put on his head to enable
him to sleep, while right across the street
lives a man who works for dollar day
and his wife has to kick him half hour
n N CO
soundly does he sleep"
In choosing a life work, the young man
is in danger of falling INTO the error that
if he can only get rich he will surely be
happy, but Benjamin Franklin showed
young man with whom he was discuss
ing the-ques tions, by practical illustra-
ton, that a man might succeed in accum-
ulating riches only to find its care such
burden as to be harder to carry than
poverty. His illustration was this: He
called a little child to him and gave it a
large apple tho child was delighted he
gave il another, and its cup of joy was
full. He now offered it a third, and in
trying to take it the child dropped one,
STOPPING to pick it up it dropped another,
and, after repeating this several times,
it finally threw all away, and burst into
tears.
Nc man is more to be envied to-day
than the owner of a farm, be it large or
small, who is out of debt and has learned
to so manage it that it furnishes an abun-
dant supply for the wants of his family,
and leaves a little to be laid by for future
use. There are men who are doing this
on a few acres. We visited one in Frank
lin county, Ohio, whose farm contained
twenty-five acres and the sales were
twenty-five hundred dollars year for
series of years. Another on a farm of
one hundred and twenty acres only half
tillable, who sold an average of 1000 per
year.
Both of these are unusual cases, and
are only mentioned to show some Of the
possibilities of farming, but to-day there
Is a larger per cent of farmers who are
out of debt and so comfortably and safely
fixed as to have no fear for the future
than can be found in almost any other
calling. The farmers money is invested
in real estate, not fictitiC IS. II is founded
deep and solid on old mother earth and
does not consist Of wind" like many Of
the stocks Of the spectators. The bank
Of earth rarely goes in the hands Of
receiver, and IL dividends are some
times small in years Of drouth they rally
again ia years Of plenty. The income from
the farm depends largely On the intelli-