Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1901-03-07

don't; they hold much less than one
halt of them, while 1t is said farmers
sons fill sixty per cent. ofthe first places
in the United States.
1t Is the same old story of the rabbit
running q race with turtle and the
turtle won because the rabbit thought
God had made it impossible for the
turtle to beat him, but God ordains that
Right shall always triumph in the end.
1t is only weak, silly woman who
would place her lazy Indifferent boy
ahead of her neighbours careful, indus
trious and capable son.
The first farmer was the first man
and God placed him in garden capa-
BILE of supplying him with food for his
family and his cattle and told him to
dress it and care for it.
We all have garden and should all
be caretakers, then God will surely
give us the increase, for never did boys
have better chance in the world than
to-day.
The farmers boy helps take care of
the stock and knows that God never
intended the strong to crowd out and
trample down the weak and this sense
of justice grows with him and shines
like star through all his life.
- He helps cultivate the potatoes and
learns that row that is only half hoed
yields only half crop and this teaches
him to be thorough and industrious.
He lives in the sunshine, hunts wood
chucks, drives COWS and cuts wood,
and in so doing lays up a supply of
health, independence and muscle that
stay with him.
He is protected from the follies and
depravities of city life until he is old
enough to withstand them. This life
of purity, industry and justice is Gods
kind of life and cannot be duplicated
or counterfeited.
We all need it and must grow in it if
we expect the blessings of health, pros
perity and peace; but unless we recog-
nize these qualities as the fundamental
principles of superiority, the farmers
boy will continue to get the larger share
of life's rewards.
They say "the face is an index of the
mind and heart" Our hearts and
minds are influenced by our habits, and
our habits are very much effected by
our surroundings.
In the country boy looks on natures
pictures and they are grand. All the
world seems lovely, orderly and inspir-
ing only to high and noble attainments,
and the boys with their wide open eyes
and round healthy faces show the
cheerful confidence of souls that know
they are going to be men.
Now look at the city boy. Unless he
has good parents, no restrictions are
placed on his conduct; he seldom sees
the sun rise and is too busy to watch |
the moon come over the top of the hill. |
He has no wood to chop or errands to |
run at regular hours. AS he becomes
older, labor is performed only as ne
cessity, and as fast as wages are earned |
they are spent; schools or public librar-
les are not patronized. The sensational, |
crime recording, untruthful Saturday |
journals furnish the only standard of |
life and society he gets, while the open
temptation to use tobacco and strong
drink leads him on to profanity and |
obscene stories.
Possibly under all these adverse cir
cumstances the boy will have some re-
deeinlng qualities, but his face will |
grow hard and the chances are largely |
against him.
1t takes years to form character, years |
to mould the expression of face be- |
cause the association with nature is |
better than it is with town life, but if |
the country boy gets to reading the |
misleading, sensational Saturday pa
pers and continues to absorb the stor-
les of brutal prize fights and crime in
all its varied details, his face and char
acter will lose the advantages he now
holds over the boys of all other classes.
Farm life is best, but the opening of
public parks, endowment of churches
schools and hospitals by the govern
ment and private individuals, with the
lack of good roads and good churches
in the country, has made the town life
look best
The tide is changing. The world is
beginning to realize that city life is
only poor copies of pictures in the sky;
while steam heat and electric light are |
only limitations of sunshine and a good |
climate, and rich men are beginning to
spend some of their money in country
districts and endow the little school |
house and church where they were |
born, instead of leaving it all to hos
pitfalls and public parks in the cities.
If my remarks have contributed the |
smallest degree of inspiration for better
health, better morals or a more firm
belief in the justice and infalibility of |
Gods laws with a desire to follow in |
them, then my task will have been we'll !
done.