The Republican journal., 1899-08-10
Man and Hoe.
Varying Types of Farmers. The Ignorant
and the Intelligent.

Varying Types of Farmers. The Ignorant
and the Intelligent.
The poem "The Man with the hoe
has received wide nOtoriety and become
very popular. 1t is strongly written
and has the sympathetic tone which is
always taking. 1t is also marked with
humanita rian instincts and impulses
which add to its force and popularity
When it first appeared in the western
papers the editor of the New England
Farmer was impressed with it, and
promptly copied it into these columns be-
fore it had received general notice.
The poem has occasiOned an unusual
amount of discussion, which is extremely
interesting on account of the widely differ
ing views that are expressed. Some con-
slider it an insult to honest labor that the
man with the hoe should be depicted as
"stolid and stunned, a brother to the OK
with ''the emptiness of ages in his face. -
Several critics regard the poem as direct
assault on the American farmers. The
facts back of the poem, however, are
frequently overlooked, and deserve notice
in explaining the poem.
One of the worlds greatest painters,
Mllet, painted picture of THE man
with the hoe the study of which led to
the poem. But the man with the hoe in
the painting is a French peasant, who is
accurately depicted in the poem as with
*brutal jaw dead to rapture and des-
pair, ga thing that grieves not and that
never hopes. The power OF the artists
brush is ably supplemented by the strength
of the poets pen.
By the courtesy of the 'Arena Maya
zine we are able to present an engraving
from this famous painting, SC that our
readers can get an idea OF the famous figure
which inspired a now famous poem-the
ignorant man who works for others; not
for himself.
We regard 1t as an interesting coinci-
dence that a recent catalogue of the
Bowker fertilizer company contained an
engraving entitled "Planting time, . which
represents an American farmer leaning on
an American hoe, in nearly the same pose
as Millet's French peasant. Had there
been a studied effort to get a companion
piece, it might not look exactly like this.
| Still comparison of the two is extremely
interesting as showing the difference in
the style of the two human beings and
how inapplicable Markham's poem is to
the American farmer. The stolid French
peasant never could have ''ired a shot
| heard around the world.' The Ameri-
can farmer is no ''monstrous thing, dis
torted and soul quenched, but man of
high forehead, clear intelligence, with a
| pose significant of energy, one of whom it
can not be said 'There is no shape more
terrible than this. -
The contrast between the two men
with the hoe does not, however, detract
from the strength OF the poem so far as
| the French peasant is concerned. The
poem asks with terrible pertinence,
How Will the future reckon with this
g, How answer his brute questions in that
| hour.
| When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the
world?
| How will it be with kingdoms and with
kings
: With those who shaped him to the thing
With this dunn terror shall reply to God
| After the silence of the centures?''
The intelligent appearing, thoughtful
American farmer will not "shake the
| world with whirlwinds of rebellion, -
latter the silence Of the centuries.'' He
| is not 'fraught with menace to the uni
verse" But he takes a vital and in
t1uential interest in affairs about him, he
is prompt and intelligent at the polls;
| when he finds other industrial classes
gaining power and influence by organiza-
ton, he forms strong organizations of his
own asking no odds of any one. Of him
it will never be said
| "Oh masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
| How will you ever straighten up this
| shape,
| Touch it again with Immortality,
| Make right the immemorial infamies,
i Perfidious wrongs, immedicabie woes?'
| In this country no one is more master,
| lord and ruler than the farmer. G. M.
W., in the New England Farmer