The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-09-04
TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 4, 1894
GO TO THE FARM.

most everyone who dWellS IN CROWDED
city when he is seized with longing to
go back to country life. This may be
instructive, because we came from the
earth, and we never lose our love for
the dear old mother. But somehow u
season of hard times always brings a re-
vival of partiality for country life. AS
the conditions in the city grow harder,
the longing to get out on the farm inUen-
sites. Possibly we can find an explain
alton for this in an interview recently
published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
That paper has been interviewing some
of the prosperous farmers of Minnesota
on the subject of national and home
affairs, and from them we extract tie
following:
ga prosperous and intelligent farmer
was discussing the events of the last
year; the financial panic, the unexam-
pied business depression, the industrial
unrest and the progress of rebellion
against the government, which, if not
arrested, wonld have ended in civil war.
well, he said, as he rose to go, 4 am
going back to my farm and let the old
world go its one gait. I am happy
there. Nothing disturbs me. In the
worst years that can come 1 will have
plenty to support my family. L will
have my books and papers and know
what is going on outside, but 1 am safe.
Panics and trade revulsions do not af-
feet me at all, and even revolution
would hardly disturb me in my quiet
nook "
There is our dream of Utopia. The
land of promise is where the corn tassels
wave and the golden wheat fields sing
song of plenty. 1t is the independence
of farm life that makes it peculiarly at
tractive in times when bankers mer-
chants, manufacturers, professional men
and all those who dwell in the over
crowded cities are barely holding on by
the skin of their teeth, and know not
what tie next day may bring forth. As
a rule the farmer never becomes a mil
ionaire, and he is deprived of many of
the so-called luxuries of city life. But,
after all, he has the best of it. He has
within his own domain all the resources
of material happiness. His is a toll
some life, but life without struggle
would be worthless. His compensation
is the independence he enjoys, and,
with industry and frugaiity, absolute as
surance against want. One cause of our
present industrial trouble has been the
tendency OF our young men within re-
cent years to desert the farm, and flock
to the cities. They must go back to the
farm. They are needed there, and they
are not needed in the cities. There is
employment awaiting all the idle men
of this continent on our Western farm
ing lands. Here in Oregon there are
opportunities for millions. Telegram.
There is much that is true in the
above article much that Is pleasant to
think of and to dream about; much
more pleasant indeed to treat in that
manner than to experience. The farm
er's life is in some respects independent,
but it is not all the poetic dream that
writers paint it. It is the hardest
worked and most poorly paid pursuit,
taking it in all its branches, that is fol-
lowed by mankind. Dreamers and
theorists paint the life of the farmer as
one of happy independence. from care,
annoyance and want. They farm in
Utopia; but in that unsentimental
world where the farmer wrestles with
climate and soil and weeds to pluck
from the earth his daily bread, the
poetry is not conspicuous.
Farming is the noblest of all occupa-
tlons; the most necessary, and in many
respects the least satisfactory. That
1T so is so much the more to the credit
of those who realizing its hardships, still
pursue it. The pensive editor drawing
a picture of peaceful homelife on the
farm, would hesitate long while before
he would consent to even try to earn his
living that way. The case is like that
of a slave who aped into Ohio. A
gentleman out of curiosity asked him if
he was not treated well, and got an
affirmative answer. "Plenty to eat,
didn't your" said he. Eyes, sah.''
Comfortable clothing?" eyes, sah."
"Cared for when you were sick?', eyes,
sah." $50 then you had good clothes,
plenty of food, light work and in fact a
very good place, then why did you
leave2' ''Well, sab, said the recent
slave, "the job am still open and you
can hab it." It is so with farming, the
pretty side of it gets into print for the
reader, the every day working side stays
at home with the farmer. He has his
bills to meet, his troubles and annoy
ances, and perhaps in as great or greater
degree than the merchantor professional
man.