The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-01-18
TOWN OR COUNTRY?
Latter is Better at One-FOurth the
Wases-Facts from Actual Expe-
rience

=
tai control should be carefully educated
as to the cost of living in town before
they make their decision. Instead of
/ being ordered to remain on the farm.
they should be treated wisely and con-
slderately by their parents, for harsh
measures never succeed If possible.
let the youth spend the dull season
working in town, and put him on his
own resources. Let him pay for board,
washing, clothes and everything out of
his salary, to give him some idea of the
scramble to live in town, and perhaps
his eyes will be opened. 1t is impossi-
BILE to tell boys of sixteen to twenty
anything, seeing they know it all, but
experience soon takes the conceit out
of them.
The experience of one young man.
whose father allowed him to try a place
in town last winter, may prove helpful
to many other farmer boys. He was II,
and the $50 a month in the factory was
very good for a boy of that age. He
saw visions of good clothes, a horse and
buggy, various good times in town and
a general life of eaae which tile first
few weeks of work taught him must re-
main dreams on that salary forever and
ever. The early rising to reach the fac
tory did not trouble him, as breakfast
was always eaten by lamp light on the
farm in winter, but the lack of good
food did. Instead of buckwheat cakes,
fresh sausage, baked beans, bread and
butter, dOughnuts and coffee, with real
cream, he found soggy fried potatoes,
| tough steak, cold bread and mussy cereal
on the dirty tablecioth in the morning
at the to himl astounding rate of SO. 50
a week. At noon luncheon out of
pail that no more resembled the gener-
GUS slices of bread, meat and cheese his
his mother used to fill the,school dinner
pail with than day is like night, and at
night more fried potatoes, prunes, poor
butter and cheap meat. He soon learn
ed that board and room for So. 50
a week was extremely reasonable, and
that his mother must have earned a
small fortune in her lifetime doing the
family washing, judging from the rates
the woman charged who Numbered his
clothes.
The trouble lies in the fact that Young
men and women in the country know
nothing of the cost of living. Accus-
toned to plenty of good food, they val
ue it lightly until term in the school
of experience teaches them the value of
the things they have had all their lives.
Counting four dollars a week for board
and washing, there is little left for
clothes, pleasures and other necessary
expenses. The new shoes, working
clothes and various incidentals eat large
holes in the remaining fourteen dollars,
and THE boy learns that half as much in
the country goes twice as far. If he
continues to work in town, he will prob
ably marry and become one of the class
OF workingmen who are never one day
ahead of the actual necessities of life
unless he has strength and ability to
push to the front. 1t sounds very al
Turing to say that factoryEmen can work
up to three dollars a day, but anyone
who has tried keeping family on eigh-
teen dollars week in city can tell
you it takes close managing, with few
of the Injuries of life thrown in.
Just now wages are very high, but so
are all the things workingmen must
buy. Good board and lodging cost from
four dollars up, though there are many
people who try to furnish bare susie
nance for laborers for less. With
country crying out for help, the towns
are thronged with young men anxious
to work in the heat and dust of shops
rather than out in the sunshine and fresh
air. The certain pay, regular hours and
chance for promotion appeal to young
men, who never think of the many idle |
days in the winter on the farm, but only |
of the long hours in harvest time. Many |
a man who lives in fear of strike or
shutdown might be Independent and |
happy in his own little home in the coun-
try if he had not chosen to work in a
factory in his younger days. tits pitiful
to see middle7aged men reading farm
papers eagerly and wondering if it
would be wise to invest the little hoard .
of savings in few acres of land and .
try chicken raising or small fruits. The |
workingman who has brought up a fam
lily in a city and saved Eone thousand
dollars by the time he is fifty is thought
to have done well, but the farmer at the
same age who could not make a better
showing would be considered shiftless
indeed. Remember, boys, it is not
what you earn, but what you save that
makes you rich. If you are looking for
a bed of roses in a city, the sooner YOU
try it the better, for the thorns are
there in plenty. 1t will not hurt YOU to
work year or two in town. and it
may make you eager to put your hand
to the pillow on the home farm.
Again in the H0Snital