The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-09-25
will be supplied with the telephone.

will be supplied with the telephone. L
also look to see it put to greater and
more profitable uses than now.
Farmers should do more toward beau
tifying and adjoining the country. The
Civic Leagues being formed in so many of
our cities and towns, are doing wonders
in this line. Let not the country lag be-
hind in this good work. Form Civic
improvement leagues in the country, and
beautify your surroundings. Cut down
the unsightly weeds along the roadside
and elsewhere, and let the grasses grow.
Adorn your school grounds and homes
with flowers and shrubs and cluster
vines. Nothing else will bring so great
returns and so much happiness and
pleasure as a little labor and expense de-
voted to this object.
Towns and the country should unite in
the making of better country roads.
This subject is being agitated in pro-
per quarters. But 1 must say that as
country travel will be greater and great
er in the future, country roads must be
made better. The making of good roads
is a vast undertaking; but sooner or
later, it must and will be accomplished.
Also, more ~sociability should exist in
the country. Encourage parties, coun-
try lyceums, debating societies-yea,
even the old time spelling school and
out interfering with school work. 1t is
a fact that as people get together more,
they like each other better. Which is a
great compliment to all of us. A man
also thinks more of himself, when he
gets out among others, and finds he is
just as smart, and in all things like
others. In every township, there ought
to be at least one winter society for the
purpose of discussing topics of farming,
and all things pertaining to the life and
experience of the farmer. At each meet
ing have two or more appointed to pre-
pare a paper or address on subjects for
discussion at that meeting. Discuss kinds
and varieties of stock, grains, vegetables,
grasses, the culture of all the same, and
a thousand other things, of practical util-
ity, which will suggest themselves to
you. A man must either be extremely
wise, or a confirmed blockhead, who will
not be benefited by such a series of dis
cussions. Such meetings lend Zest and
flavor to the farmers life, and enable him
to more fully comprehend the grandeur
of his calling, and will make life more at
t~ractive to his son and daughter. The
best citizenship of our country has ever
been, and still is, found upon the farm.
Let country conditions and advantages
be so improved, that a still better citi-
zenship shall remain there.
l have said something about the oppor-
t%unities for sober, Industrious young
men to get employment on salaries. l do
not want to be understood as advising a
young man to leave the farm for any m
ployment. No calling in life is so indie
pendent, so free from cankering care
so free from temptation to evilEor which
tends to such sterling manhood, as life
on the farm. I know from my own early
experiences, all the drawbacks and limi-
tations of farm life. | also know all
about a boys idea of city and town life.
But [ will say to you, that success in
country or town, comes only as the re-
ward of honest toll. Many town boys
have the advantage of ease and idleness
during much of their early life, when not
in school. But this is IN apparent adj
vantage. that will curse him all his life.
For bv and by, he will be called upon to
carry burdens and to endure hardships
without preparation, and the chances are.
that the battle of life will 60 hard with
him.
In conclusion, the hope of u country
lies in the young. Soon we who are in
middle life, and older, will pass from the
scene of action, and new faces, new
voices and new hands shall predominant
in all affairs private and public. May we
so educate, SO guard, guide and direct
the rising generation, that when we lay