Woodruff County news., 1901-08-15
FARMER ANDPLANTER.
ABOUT THE FARM GIRL.
Few Timely Words on a Su5i'ck that is Usually Sadly Neg
 Iected.

The farm boy--why, he is the sub ject of hundreds of articles by those who think they know just how he ought to be treated by his father and mother. His room is carefully de- scribed, and we are told how we ought to try to interest him in farm mat ters, so that he will not want to run away to the city; but the girl, who thinks or cares for her?
 But it is a serious matter we have to deal with when we come to think about the farm girl. She will be the farmers wife of tomorrow if some city or town chap does not come in and carry her away to grace his home, which ] do not blame him for doing; it is the most sensible thing he could possibly do Still l would far rather see her stay among the birds and the flowers and the sweet scenes of the country than to know that we have lost her, even to make our city youth happy.
 But where are the girls of the farm to-day? I do not know. Do you? AL most every week some one calls at Clover-leaf farm and asks: Do you know where l can find a good girl to work for me? My wife is sick, and we need some one to help us for a few weeks" And 1 do not know where to send him. l try to think of the girls that used to be in the neighborhood. One of them is teaching school grand and noble occupation. Another is fitting herself for the same calling We are proud of the reports which come to us from her. Still another is doing dressmaking" in town. So go on, and come back just where l started I do not know of single girl that could be had for love or money.
 Now, I can not say that 1 blame the young women for wanting to do just as well as they possibly can. It is all right to reach out for the very best that is within touch. Teaching, type writing, sewing, working in the fac tory, serving as a clerk in the store these are all honorable professions But so is farming. I wonder if it can be that it is because our girls really prefer to be shut up in the factory, or bend over the sewing-table from morning until night, that they go away from the farms? 1 do not quite think so. What then?
 I believe it is because the girls are dissatisfied with the life on the farm. It is not simply because they can earn a little more money in town than they can on the farm, although, no doubt, some do leave us on that account; but the prime motive, so far as my obser- vation goes, is lack of real love for the country home. A feeling of sadness came over me when l wrote that last sentence, for l do not like to think that any of our boys and girls should ever cease to love the scenes of the country. And I do not believe they would if their home surroundings were just what they should be. That may hurt some fond father or mother who has helped Mollie pack her trunk tC go away to town. l think l can feel something of the sorrow which ac- companied her going away. But let me ask that mother whether or not she has not by herself talking slight ingly of the farm and it's work, by the way in which she has educated her daughter during the early years of her childhood, helped to bring on this feeling that the country is not just the place for live girl or boy. It is not exciting enough. Nothing ever happens in the country. Life is dull here. Is not this the common trend of the conversation?
 Well, if that be true, what shall we do to keep our girls with us? Every farmer father and mother must an- swer that for himself or herself. Do you think if the home were as beau tiful as it should and might be with the outlay of little care and not great deal of money; if the girls life were full of bright, cheery and help ful things, as every farmer girls life might be; if all that is said and done in the home should be such as to deep en the girls love for the country and the country home; if, in short, the
 
 farm were allowed to weave it's mystic spell around the farm girl, that she would be so anxious to get away from it all and shut herself up in the hot, dusty, lonely city? I do not.
 And l feel all the more sorry to see our girls go away when l think of the time to come-and it surely will come when she will long to get back home to the farm. And it may not be pos sible to do so them. Life's duties press hard upon us as we grow older, and the thing we would like to do and which we wish we had done we can not possibly do now. The heart may grow weary thinking about the home back in the country, where all was so free and pure; duty says: No here is your place; stay in it."
 Well, this, then, is plea for the country girl, direct appeal to the fathers and mothers who have girls yet untouched Inv inc SDel Of ot h ar