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

"HNA SNNNSSS foA IL lS IOO OILeU
the medium of exchange for few pounds
of brown sugar, box OF matches, the rest
in tobacco. All! my friends, there are
prose as we'll as poetry in the matter of
farm life, But, having put our hands
to the plow, let there be no turning back.
We need by sheer force of heart and mind
to rise above what is Ndistastetul and mo-
notonous in our lives.
We might call your attention to many
things that would enhance the pleasures
and add to the profit of the farm. Our
church, social and market privileges are
wonderfully retarded by bad roads. A
country road, like every other piece of
human work, is either good or bad, lust
in proportion to the amount of sense and
ingenuity that has been put into its con-
struction. Traffic between farm and
market is costly and uncertain; with scant
loads our farmers struggle through miles
of mire, every mud hole is an impossible
slough of despond. The road and the
wagon are twin handmaidens of agricul-
ture that attend the farmer on every
journey to market, and they are forever
at odds with each other. If the man
who sold the farmer that wagon had tried
to sell him that road, homicide would
have become virtue. Good roads bring
us closer together drives out gloom, makes
neignbors of hermits. Let us remember
that all riches came from the ground, and
no nation ever became great whose farm
ers were not great, and remembering these
things, let us try to bring the city and
country little closer together by having
better roads. You may think this ques-
ton OF roads should be tabooed by lady
or that she may have little interest there
in. Good sir, the question of the cond
ton of the roads has brought more dis
appointments and heart-aches to the
farmers wife than the husbandman's
finances. What pleasure is there in
pretty or expensive toilet, if she cannot
reach the outside world, and invite the
envy OF her less fortunant sisters by an
ample display of her gewgaws? We
may not be able to tell you just how to
construct good road, but would suggest
that good road was never made with
three bitches, one on each side, the other
in the middle. About the LATEST specta-
Gle we ever witnessed in men was when
they were working out their taxes on the
road, and are not surprised that their
effort suggested the disreputable trinity
of bungle, blunder and botch.
Our highways have cost us thousands
of dollars, but little thought And while
our brains have been gathering wool in
distant pastures our money has turned
into mud. Inever had the heart to blame
a balky horse when saw him overloaded.
driven over an almost impossible road; it
is his one solitary method of filing an OBJ
lection. The only beast that was ever
known to talk is said to have called Mr..
Balaam's attention to the bad going.
Legislation can draft no law suitable to
all sections. Legislation will not make
good roads so long as you are careless in
the selection of supervisors. IF we are
taxing ourselves by useless custom, let
us be rid OF it, for nothing enhances the
value of farm lands more than good roads.
L think if you give careful thought to
this subject, "rhe advantages of farm
life, all will admit that poor roads is the
bar put up to our everlasting disadvant-
age. So we must conclude. in order to
have good roads, the man and money
must be had together, and that the money
is not the difficult part. Mend your
ways, gentlemen, and let it never be said
that that man was Cameron county
farmer who left, as his last will, sealed
document containing the impressive
words: 81 owe much l have nothing, I
give the rest to the poor"
ADVANTAGES OF FApMpp,c pov