The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1902-08-28
Wilmington Messenger.

Wilmington Messenger.
We copy below an article from the
Monroe Journal. giving sketches OF
the lives of two farmers OF Union
county. No one who reads the eN-
tract will say we have wasted space
in reproducing it. We wish it could
be read by every farmer and laboring
man in North Carolina. There is a
moral to be drawn from the nara
tive that should be well considered
by every parent in the State. These
two farmers had passed middle age;
they had plodded along for years,
each working hard and making the
most he could out Of his opportuni-
ties; each had raised up around him
q family of girls and boys who in a
few years were TO become the mat
rons o: households and the custodi-
ans OF the honor aud integrity Of our
State.
Each of these farmers had in his
own opinion been successful in this
life, but see the contrast between the
home conditions and the surround
ings of the two men. Both have
worked hard all their lives. but with
what different ends in view-one to
educate. lift up and m axe happy his
children, who in after years will rise
up and call him blessed d; the other to
add to his worldly possessions at the
expense Of the moral, intellectual and
physical development Of his offspring.
In one family there is content, happi-
ness and enligh htenment; in the other
discomfort. ignorance and grovelling.
In our State there are too many men
of the second class and too few OF the
former. What a pity it is that it
| should be SO. How much happier
and more prosperous we would he if
the order of things were reversed
and we had more such farmers and
laboring men who worked for the
future good OF their children rather
than with the sole aim OF acquiring
worldly goods at the expense OF moral
and intellectual training OF those de-
pendent on them.
Read the article below and say
which you think OF the two farmers
has made success OF life:
A farmer of Union county, while
in conversation in the Journal office
one day recently, remarked that when
he looked back over the fifty years oi
his life and contemplated his present
age and financial standing he was in
clined to be ashamed of himself, bu'
upon further reflection his shame
would rather turn into pride. Look
ing at his life from the standpoint o
those who count only the getting o
money as success, he could but admi
that it had been failure, for thougl
surrounded with enough to give
l moderate amount of comfort, he ha'
neither madcsnor saved much money
,, , But the other side of the picture
well calculated to stimulate feeling
, of pride-was that he had made hi
: home happy; be had educated hi
), large family of boys and girls an
c trained them to be useful men an
: women Chose of them who wer
grown, the others were yet beinI
trained); while living for himself b
had also lived for others and ha
welded an influence for good in hi
n community and county. Thes
= thoughts came to him in no spirit c
vanity or self laudation; they wer
merely the reflections OF sensibl
@ man who could look at things as the
J., are.
There is another farmer in Unio
: county who has attained success. II
/ has worked early and late-worke
both himself aud family. lie got a
q he could in his fifty years and keT
O all he got. Ills profits OF each yea
!. were put into lands, improved mi
l. chinery and better stock. When II
e hour glass of his life pointed TO III
d half century mark, men spoke of hi
n as well TO do. But his children ha
r. crown up As the weeds about hin
n and none of them can read or writ
n an age Of which education and II
II spread Of intelligence are the mo
r marked features. this man has reare
le his children as he might have dol
le before the invention of printing; b
= cattle are sleek and fat, his barns a
-e full. but his children are dwarfs az
in an era OF brightness and happlne
- when the world ia getting better tb'
r are shut out from the light and W
,e pass their days expatriated, the
a, bir,hright sold for mess Of pot,ai
n. which they themselves did not ev'
y receive.
Which has been successful? Few
Of and fewer grow the cases OF succe
IN like the latter, while those like 4
10 former daily multiply.