The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1908-04-18
Alone on the Farm

Ahu never d saint tOOk pity ON
My soul in agony"
Some natures are hopelessIy- grega
rious; they pine in solitude, they
wither outside of an environment
which does not provide plenty Of peo-
pie. They dote on company" but
then misery loves company" To
the average conventional type of man
or woman there is always a pleasing
outlook in the average conventional
state of existence. The man rises at
q certain hour, stung into natural or
simulated activity by the venomous
rafting of an alarm clock. He bathes,
dresses, eats and goes down town,
often catching the car at precisely the
same hour every morning, and quite
frequently arriving home for supper
At the same hour year in and year out.
He wears about the same clothes that
al the rest of the men wear. and
plugs along through life with almost
as much variety in his experiences as
= pet squirrel in a revolving cage.
II he did not meet many men in the
course Of the day, read two or three
morning, afternoon and evening pa
pers, hear the gongs on the street
cars, see lights. hear music in the
streets, take in the smoke and glare,
the dust and grind of the daily hub
bub in his particular city, he would be
~ lonesome as a coyote.
The average woman in a city, II she
has children, puts In a good deal of
time over them. She reads a little.
engages In an occasional catch-as-
catch-can contest with the piano, does
the matinee, shops, churches and
parks, has her little circle where the
ladies gather to read Browning and
toast" their liege lords:
Trust them to tinker the little tin
monsters"
And In various and sundry desperate
ways she strives to stave OF the
creeping ennui that threatens her ex-
istence. II she be childless woman,
she seeks the doubtful solace of the
clubs, and tags on to the kite-taiI of
some belated reform. Both she and
her mate, the average dweller in the
city. do not know what they are really
pursuing in the maze of life, but that
they are actually after something,
both are firmly convinced. Each
would be deadly afraid OF the prospect
OF actually depending ON themselves
for eompanionship. Each needs and
must have the change and contrasts
Afforded by frequent association with
their kind; each is . biped with very
few. II any innate resources of their i
own for enjoyment
Put such = man or woman ON q
farm. to stay there for . year, and
they have three avenues of escape.
and three only. to wit: Drink. opiates,
Or Bedlam. There is q story, weird,
powerful, Of man who was always
seeking crowds. In the early dawn he |
was to be seen among the masses Of |
aboring people crowding to work; |
turing the morning he appeared where
he idlers thronged; at noon his face
vas seen where the city dined and
frank; In the afternoon he could be
ound In the parks, strolling where
he picknickers and merry-makers
'athered on the lawns; at night he
vas amid the home-going toilers, and
alter with the theater-goers.
Going out into the country" to
most city people means going to some
Resort" so called, where you view
allure through a smoked glass, dress
so as not to be out
hone by your fellow resorters, and
there you sit in hammock and read
ght novels. This, with an occasion
swim. and possibly a moonlight
eating trip, constitute the essence of
eing next to natures heart" It
quite pathetic, at these places, to
ee what wild thrill day-before-yes-
srday's sporting sheet from a metro
olitan newspaper will cause among
ne men. AS for the ladies, they sail
bout airily and warily. a shirt-waist-
q brigade Of disconsolate gossipers
Or the most.
II is a general error to suppose
hat everyone would be happy on a
lrm. 1t would be nearer the truth
say that most people would be |
IMPLY desperate in six months. The
ountry people get in touch with city
fe quickly and take on the urban
pirit very quickly; witness the many
PROFESSIONAL and business men who
ave come from the farms. But the
ny man or woman, even when ;
taught young" are hard to blend
18th the fields and woods, and mo
otony," as it seems to them, of act.
II farm life.
Now 1t happened that in the case of
ecile and myself we both had a
ltural and deep love for outdoors. ,
ot merely In the sense of its music 1
ID its picturesqueness, but a perfect i
reement with its silences. The /
Iange and blend of following and I
ding seasons was a source of tire. !