The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1907-04-19
THE GOLDEN AGE
We Are Living In II But DO Not
Know It.
Reflections on the Pest, The
Present and the Future and It's
LPSSOnp

SWIM IteHectlOn6 on the Fest, The
Present and the Future and It's
Lessons.
IT has long been the fashion to
scold farmers for their disposition to
be dissatisfied. Every p~enny-a-liner
III tho line has denounced them as
chronic grum blers." On first thought
thls may seem to be a serious reGec-
ton, but after closer analysis 1t does
not appear SO formidable. BY the op-
GRAFTON OF q natural law 1t Is limos
sible for any OF us to be entirely eat
lsfed with present conditions. n
there Is no discomfort there will he
no progress. 1t is dissatisfaction with
conditions which gives life to tho
great reformers. 1t is because thew
do not like things as they are that we
nave the great reformers In religion
and politics.
The farmer who is content to 20
as MS ancestor did is certainly not
a desirable acquisition to the world
or ag. iculture. 1t Is that class who
wear out the land, who deteriorate
the stock, who never learn and v
forget anything. The improvements
are brought about by those who sus
pect there Is n better way. He knows
nat 1T has always been the custom to
40 so and SO. but, like tho ~iconoclas-
TIC Hamlet, he bluntly declares that
the custom Is better in the breach
than thee servance. lie determines
TO change things and strike out on
new lines. In this resolve we have the
Igerms Of reform, the vanguard of
all improvement on the farm.
| without imDatiaOcn utfh tho ,tofo
In which we live 1t Is manifest that
there would be no desire to improve.
This Impotence. however, while 1t
stimulates us to surpass proceeding
generations, disposes us to oyerate
their happiness. 1t is unreasonable
and ungrateful in US to be constantly
disconted with O condition which
is constantly improving. But in truth
there Is constant Improvement pre-
cisely because there is constant dis
content. If we were perfectly salts.
fed with the present we should cease
to contriye, to labor and save with
I view to the future. Another curious
Illustration Of the operations OF that
mystery of mysteries, the human
mind If found in the fact that to our
dissatisfaction with the present il
due the tendency 20 form a too favor.
able estimate OF the past.
Though the times in which we live
are infinitely superior to anything
ever known to the world, there Is al
Irresistible inclination to imagine
that our own period Is inferior tc
others that hay gone before. For the
life OF us, we cannot escape the ten.
dency to place the golden age in the
past, whereas wisdom would suggest
that 1t Is essential to progress that
this goal Of all u struggles SHOULD
be placed in the future Thus We
would look forward to 1t ms a prize
to be struggled for, an ideal to be
reached, instead OF taking the dis
heartening view that the best had al
ready been accomplished. "
In always imagining that times pas
were superior to timcs present we
are under n deception similar to tina
which misleads the traveller in tn,
Sahara desert. Beneath the caravan
ali Is dry and bare, but far in advanc,
and far In the ear Is the semblanc,
of refreshing waters. The pilgrims
hasten forward and find nothing bu
sand where an hour before they hat
seen a lake. They turn their eye,
and see q lake where, an hour before
they were toiling through sand. /
similar Illusion seems to haunt ma
tions through every stage of the loni
progress from poverty and barbarisn
to the highest degree Of opulence an
civilization. But If we resolutely chas,
the mirage backward we shall find |
receede before us into the regions O
fabulous antiquity.
George Washington, the riches
man Of his day, did not have SO goot
a bed to sleep in as that now at the
service of every one Of the thousand:
OF farmers who read this. There were
no comforts In the kitchens OF Mad
ison or Jefferson which would no
now be spurned by every farmer!
Wife, with the latest range or cool
stove, her neatly arranged pantry
her ice box and her convenient pumI
that sends water through all tn,
house. A hundred years ago noble
men In England were destitute o
comforts which millions Of modern
farmers now consider the common
places Of existence. Depend upon 1t
the golden age Is all around us a,
this moment, but this does not mill
tate against the proposition of this
article, that discomfort Is the result
Of a natural law without which there
would be neither individual growth