Willmar tribune., 1908-04-29
The Independence
Of Farm Life

Hard times. hard times come again no
more.''
What strikes the casual sojourner
most who comes from the city to the
country is the total absence of any
look of worry in the faces of the peo-
pie about him. He sees many types
of the dwellers in rural districts, and
all stages Of existence included, and
men and women, boys and girls, all
seem to be freed from that hungry,
anxious look, which shows so plainly
In the visages of the dwellers in large
towns. When they are through with
their work they show it in a sense Of
having thrown of the cares of the
day. In the cities, and especially on
the sidewalks and in the cars, the men
and women who have been released
for brief respite from their tasks
have hunted and careworn look, ap-
prehensive to degree.
Strikes, lock-Outs, competition, ap-
preaching old age, the rises in the
price Of the necessaries in life, the
cost of living, the dread grind that re-
duces men and women to machines
which must regulate their movements
by the tick of clock or the turn of a
handle to testify to unerring and slav-
ish punctuality-all these, while they
may not so much bring wrinkles be-
fore ones time, make the twin
wraiths of fear and anxiety look out
of the eyes of most of those who
carry the burdens of work-a-day life
in the metropolis.
What does the mere problem of liv-
ing mean in the country? We found
that out very quickly. Rent, including
an ample garden plot and extra
ground for potatoes, with all the fruit
we could use, including apples,
peaches, plums, cherries, grapes and
blackberries, with the use of a long
and shOrt-distance telephone, all the
wood we needed for fuel If we cared
to cut it, house of five rooms with
pump and cistern for kitchen use,
and fine we'll at the east porch,
yard with shady naples about it, and
"a ~"A VI OAuO 6A0o0 ala oAOuAu CAN
house-all this for $11 a month.
We could have kept chickens and
had a cow and it would not have cost
us anything extra. l had the run of
the entire farm of 100 acres to hunt
on, and in summer time we could get
all the greens we could use by SIM
ply walking into the pastures close by
ard gathering them.
Neat at the town, four miles away,
was ten cents a pound for the very
finest steaks, much finer than any I
could get in Chicago at any price.
When the farmers around us killed."
We coul2 buy meat for from six to
sight cents pound. Butter was 20
cents pound the year round. Milk,
eggs aud poultry were cheap, and
groceries the same as in the city.
With the hiring of a girl at $3.50 a
week, and with the addition to the
table of our gardening products, the
average expense for four of us was
from $35 to $3S month. Did some
one say "clothes?" You don't wear
clothes in the country, you just use
up what you take from the city; and
for the most part go clad like Joseph,
In coat of many colors'
Hickory shirt for a man, brown
duck trousers and coat, no hat, collar,
cuffs, or tie, or maybe loose black
silk tie for the turn-down collar that
goes with the hickory shirt, and that
completes mans dress in the coun-
try. My laundry bill for two years
for BOILED" shirts and linen collars
was about $3.50. All a woman needs
is her old clothes, duck walking suit
consisting of a short skirt and a neat
fitting jacket Qf she's got a good fig
ure), plenty of shirt waists which can
be laundered at home, and good, stout
! walking shoes. If she is wise enough
to cut out the stiff, high collars, her
neck will shed all its wrinkles, as a
ducks back sheds rain, after she has
given her neck entire freedom for six
months.
Did some one say "sickness?" You
don't Get sick in the country. You
get out of the habit of it, mostly.
Plenty Of fruit, vegetables, pure water
and open air, have depressing effect
on the drug store trade and doctors
bills. We only telephoned for the doc
tor once in two years, when the baby
was soaring us into a frenzy one night,
and the message got mixed and he
didn't come after all. And the baby
was all right, at that.
What can you do with $35 or $3S
in large city? You can just about
get one of those CHASTITY "joints"
called a modern steam-heated fat"
where you either freeze or melt, take
your choice. Where there isn't any
front yard, and no back yard to speak
of. And then comes your "girl," your
gas bill, your telephone bill, your
laundry bills, your grocery bills, your
meat, ice, bakery, vegetable and other
bills, your downtown expenses, car
fare, this, that and the other expense
until you are driven like galley
slave to make both ends meet, and
even then you are in debt usually at
the end of the year. And you have
been eating poor stuff and drinking
doubtful water, and paying Doctors
bills, and you're nervous, anxious and
unhappy. What's the use? Honestly.
what is there in it for you?
Now you can get a house in the
country in good many localities for
even seven dollars a month with
room for chickens, a cow and a place
to keep a pig. You can have butch
er kill your pig and have your winter