Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-06-20

The Farm. A Training
School tor Business.
An original essay read by Miss
Maggie Fitzgibbon at the June
meeting of the Union Farmers
Club at w Doty's, June Is. 1901:
To attain the full perfection of
business manhood one must be
reared in the rural districts.
Education is not knowledge only,
nor booklearning only, but the
right perfection Of all the powers
physical, mental, aud spiritual.
knowledge comes not by some
awkward turn of intuition.
To learn the A, B, Us is felt to
be extremely irksoms by the in.
FAINT. To learn what We do not
like, to force into our minds words
to which no ideas are attached
gives no satisfaction. Natures
college is the best college. No
other has So wide and grand a
course. A life on the farm de-
velopes the first principles of self
education.
knowledge comes from our soli-
tary walks amid countless mani
festations of creative power and
providential wisdom. We acknow-
ledge the might that called the m
into being, the skill which per-
fected the harmony of parts.
The corn as its tassels wave in the
breeze, and the green blades of
grass, the streams, the hills, the
clouds, stars, the rising and set
ting sun. Can one of natures
lstudents be an atheist after being
reared amid such scenes as this?
In looking at our nature We dis
cover among the admirable en-
dowments, the sense or perception
of beauty. We see the germ of
this in every human being and
there is no power which admits
> greater cultivation, and the pro.
} vision for the development of this
principle is no where 80 abundant
as on the farm where loveliness
and grandeur court our notice.
/ Every husbandman is living in
the sight of divine artist.
: You may we'll say, the boy on
J. the farm starts life astride of q
: farm horse. He is preparing for
all different changes on the road
!, of life. Learning to hold on, get
i ting the habit of depending or
n his own heels, and not upon othe,
,, peoples stirrups, finding how tc
hold on without anybody to give
o him boost. IL does not hurt
him cen though he does fall off
. This is the training that will
guide him when he is far in the
midst Of life. It helps to make {
man of him.
) Farm-life is practical, for !
e purposes as one 9f t. +. &c, ,. enus
}. to fit US ,fc~ ..on' 20 maze us
8 take, to train a man to firmness Of
purpose and faithfulness of re
source in common life and espec.
tally in emergencies, in time OF
> difficulty, danger, and trial, he
will meet them with great forti.
tude and not turn to such vices
as the use of alcohol and opium
1t prepares US for all sudden
changes, to mount the hill when
the hill rises, to walk the the
plain when it stretches before us,
and to ford the river when it rolls
over the plain.
i Ethan Aliens DARING attamnt IN
the path of renown was just his
exercising his training and dis
cipline developed upon a back
woods farm. He was yoeman
fresh from the plough, in the garb
OF rural labor, patriot brave and
generous, but rough and ready,
who thought not of himself in
time of danger, but was ready to
serve in any way in the good
cause.
Our village or city life would
stagnate if it were not for the un.
explored forests and meadows
which surround it. We need the
tonic Of the wilderness to prepare
us for hardships, at the same