The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1900-11-22
Renting the Farm.


The ord farmer who has moved into
town to please his. family and because
he has vague notion that he ought to
retire is often pathetic sight His
occupation is gone, and with it the
interests of life time. He enters a
new environment and feels himself
shrinking in Importance as the days go
by. With the removal of all ob1iga-
lions to busy himself, he often falls
into the habit of doing nothing a good
share of the time. and hugs the chin =
ney corner when he is not gossiping
with old eronies at the village store
He grows old rapidly and from being a
man of some distinction in the commu-
nifty he rapidly deteriorates into the
class of superfuous individuals who
contribute nothing to society Such is
not necessarily the fate of all men VINO
retire from the active management of
farms, but it occurs frequently enough
to afford plenty of examples. One
wonders why they are SO easily per
suaded to relinquish an active life, yet
the reasons are abundant enough If
one takes the trouble to investigate
Perhaps the children are growing up
and clamor for greater scholastic ad-
vantages than the district school af-
fords, and better society They unite
to persuade Pa that he is getting old,
that he needs a rest and that he ought
to rent the farm and move to town
where Jack may eventually secure a
clerical position and Mary learn dress
making. His life has seemed to him
monotonous and filled with hardships,
and he, too, thinks a change would be
agreeable So he rents the farm but
he never feels like man among men
after. In later years when the farm has
deteriorated under a succession of ten
ants and has finally been sold for half
its value, when the pleasures of clerical
life have begun to pail, Jack obviously
thinks of the good old times on the
farm, and wishes he had not been SO
eager to sell his birthright.
The man who removes with his fam
lily to the village but who continues to
superintend the work his farm or
FARMS is in very different situation.
For him life loses none of it's in
terest. He has simply enlarged his
boundaries by moving to town, and he
has sense of security in the thought
that in adversely there is always the
farm to fall back upon
Some agricu1turalists claim, how
ever, that no man can farm prohtably
at long range, that is, after he has
ceased to reside the farm. We are
not prepared to yield the point in the
face of some conspicuous examples to
the contrary, but if we admit 1t for the
sake of argument the case against the
farmer who abandOnS his farm is the
stronger. Would it not pay better in
the end to employ more help and to
provide horses to convey his children
to and from the high school and places
Of amusement, or better yet to send
them to college, but keep their home
and its association unchanged. A tele-
phone is an easy and comparatively.
cheap vehicle of communication which
any farmer who is rich enough to re-
tire can well afford, and there are
many 1uxuries possible to the farm
home that will not only make it toll
cradle to young people, but attractive.
Those who have had even slight ac-
quaintance with frontier farmers who
usually live five to ten miles from a
railroad, will acknowledge that among
them were some of the most SOciable
people they ever knew, people who
know how to entertain and be enter
tanned. The hospitality of the South
in ante-be11um days, and the social in
tercourse between plantations many
miles apart, made that part our
country famous.
A social disposition will find oppor-
tunities even on a farm and it seems
a pity to exchange it's independence
and freedom and the beautiful asso-
Citations of a life so close to the heart
of nature for what often proves to be
a more cramped and less healthy ex-
istence in town.
It is natural and right that the farm
er who has satisfied his material am
billions should theneeforward desire
to take life easier, but there is vast
difference between resting and rusting.