The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-09-01
aBAcK TO THE FARM"

The other day two Missouri boys
ran away from home and landed in
Kansas City with combined capital
of IS cents. 1t was not long till they
had to be fed by charity and sent
home by kindly purses. This is but
a history of thousands of similar
cases. We hear of the success of
the farm boy who goes to the city
and wins, but not of the hundreds
who fail and become "hewers of
wood and drawers of water" all
their lives on very short commons.
The boy with inpate talent or genius,
and who feels the promptings of eth
er, is justified in going to the city;
but the average boy will soon find
out that IS cents in big city will
not turn out like Jay Gould's mouse
trap. The Kansas City /ou,nGI, in
speaking of these two boys in a light
some, but truthful vein, gives the
following comment on their expert
ence:
The boy who has only 65 cents
when he lands in big city, and who
has an unlimited supply of yellow
legged chickens and real butter and
homemade eggs, and all that, at the
other end of the line, would do well
to "try the old farm while longer"
and make a bee line for that farm.
Nine times out of ten he won't be in
such ''hurry to go" the next time
he thinks the farm life is little
"slow."
City life is not what it was when
Benjamin Franklin wandered about
the streets of Philadelphia munching
a piece of bread. 1t is complex, and
fierce and brutal with the elemental
struggle for existence. Chicken costs
IS cents per pound if it is of this
years vintage, and other farm sta
pies in proportion. You don't get
farm milk or farm butter or farm
eggs in town. There isn't any "hog
killing" time. The parks in the
summer time are poor substitute
for the great park of Nature the
whole year round. The theater can
not be compared with the "taffy-
pullings" and debating societies in
the winter time, to say nothing of
the shedding" and hayrick rides
over the crunching snow in the moon
light.
Oh, yes, the farm is "slow" at
times, but in most respects it is vast
ly better than the rapidity of the big
city. Many men who haven't seen
the sun rise for years, who never
hear lark and who would not know
daisy if they saw it growing up
through the hot asphalt, often wish
they were back on the "slow" old
farm, and as they let themselves into
stuffy house with a night key they
long for the time when they were
tired and dirty and happy and pure
hearted and clean Of life. "Better
try the old farm a while longer.
Don't be in hurry to CO."
"The Examine, has given SINH
lar advice for many years, but every
where the tendency to go to the city
still prevails till farm help is very
scarce and it seems as if not one boy
in ten follows in the footsteps of his
farmer father. If all the country
boys who fail in the city would go
back to the land, or could be sent
back as were the Kansas City lads,
things would not be so bad. But a
young man does not like to confess
failure. His vanity must be graft
fed. He fears being laughed at if
he returns to the plow. He went to
the city with conceit stimulated by a
little book learning and smattering
of knowledge, and so coming back to
make hay and milk the cows wounds
his foolish pride. He thought he
knew enough to conquer and found
out he didn't, but it would be humil-
iating to confessit. Ifnecessity forces
him back home he is apt to be dis
contented and growls at the world
for not recognizing his imagined
abilities. So he makes an indiffer-
ent farm worker. If he remains in
the city he is failure or a slave,
and if he goes back to the country
he leads fretful life.
So, boys, estimate all the chances
of town existence before you attempt
it.-Lancaster { Pa.) Examiner.