The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-11-22

How to keep the boys on the farm
| has been exhaustively discussed in
| books, magazines and newspapers, but
| seldom has a word been said about the
girls. While the boys are universally
| regarded as the malnstays of the fam
lily and their departure from the old
home an irreparable calamity; the fact
| remains that the girls are just as es-
sential to the prosperity and happiness
of the farm home as are the boys, and
farm life Is just as necessary to their
full and evenly balanced development
of both mind and body as it Is to the
boys, and if they are not contented and
happy in their farm home something in
that home life is radically wrong. II
the father IS continually growing
about the mud, the heat, the cold, the
tariff, low prices, poor crops; the
mother about the farm drudgery, de-
privations, and lack of cOngenial So
ciety, need we wonder that the chill
dren, growing up IN such an atmos-
phere will long for change of sur
roundings and conditions, to know
and be known, to meet people of note,
to find amusement and excitement IL
the great centers of populatiOn-are
anxious to flee from evils they know,
to them they know not? In such Il
home the very joys of life are dashed
aside and the children look hopefully
into the dim future with distorted
vision and imagine they see in the
great world away from their home,
only honor, success and happiness. 1t
would be wrong to discourage any
laudable ambition, but 1t Is sad indeed
to hear any girl lament the alleged
narrowness of farm life and express a
desire for the presumed advantages of
city or town and a determination to
seek employment there. Where one
girl has left the farm to better her
condition has succeeded, scores have
failed, and many without sufficient for
titude to return to the farm home and
begin where they left off have drifted
to ruin. If the home of the farmer
girl is happy cheerful one, she is
cheerless unhappy place her duty Is to
make model home, to rise superior
to her surroundings and with the sub
lime herolsm peculiar and singular to
her sex, by calm, steady and determin-
ed persistenCy transform 1t into place
of rest, comfort and peace. Farm life
is not narrow; neither need our lives
be narrow on the farm. In no other
place in all this world does nature deal
out her glories with SO lavish hand
and in no other place are the evils of
life so completely excluded. During
the long winter evenings, between the
lids of books or magazines the noted
writer, the scientist or the eloquent
preacher can be met and heard and
from the pages Of newspapers can be
gathered the news of the entire world.
The petty frivolities that mar the
beauty of so many lives are not there
but in their place are unequalled op-
portunities for study and for self puri-
fcation and ennoblement by COM
munion with the truest and noblest
minds of the day. Let the farmer girl
cling to her home and drive away her
discomfort with plans for Frightening
and beautifying it and then put her
plans into action. However distasteful
it may be, there is no duty that can
not be made pleasure If one chooses to
make it so and the farmer girl is no
exception to the rule. If she will be-
come interested in everything around
her she will inspire others with in
terest; If she will look for beauty she
will see it all around her, and if she
will work for happiness she will find
it in her farm home as nowhere else
on earth.-Agricultural Epitonist.