Gilpin observer., 1908-06-11
by Joseph 3. Bowles.)

IoiticS lS uOL SUCH burning QueS-
ton with them as 1t used to be;
and when they attend a meeting to
hear some notable orator talk, 1t is
more with the idea of being enter
tained than instructed. The great
city dailies are not taken through the
country as freely as they used to be,
and semi-weekly papers from the cit
les. with special farm knowledge"
parts. are the most popular. The
county seat paper is taken by most
of them, and occasionally you will
find some alert farmer who takes
three or four papers. big and little,
but he Is In advance of his neigh
bors. and Is watching the markets for
business purposes.
AS for magazines and periodicals,
unless farming magazines, and week
lies devoted to farm life and inter
ests, they are not nearly SO much in
evidence as in former years. Busi-
ness principles and the commercial
instinct has steadily pushed aside the
purely literary and substituted for 1t
the eminently practical, and as time
goes on, the more strictly utilitarian
the publication, the more it is likely
to succeed in the rural districts.
The discomfort among the boys Is
more nearly restricted to that period
Of their existence when they are 20
years and 1854 days old. When I'm
my own man" is the waking and
dreaming thought of most of them
Paw" can do pretty much as he
pleases with them until they are of
age, and their earnings go into the
parental hopper without so much as
by your leave or rest your SOUL"
But on the magic day when they
shake off the shackles of youth and
enter the gladsome and perturbed
state of manhood. the winter" of
their discomfort becomes glorious
summer" on the very instant.
1t was a pretty tough proposition
for the boys. A boy on the farm can
do. or at least he does work when he
is from eight to ten years old. Not
hard work especially. but he can
'chore" around and help do hard
work When he gets along to IL
he is betting big" and can do many
things. When he is 16, he is set
to doing mans work. And so he
serves a long and arduous appren-
ticeship before he can earn his own
wages, and he gets about his board
and keep. and when he is getting along
to II or so, maybe Paw" will let him
buy himself buggy.
While the child-labor movement is
being agitated for the factories-and
good move, too-why not give the
farm boys a chance? Why should a
boy work on a farm from dawn to
dark before he is 16. If 1t isn't right
for them to work in factories before
that age? Why not give farm boy
chance to get thorough common
school education. and even a small
chance for a boyhood before he goes
into the harness? That is the ques-
ton a lot Of these boys are asking.
and that is one of the reasons for the
drift to the cities.
Some Of these boys. ambitious,
nervy lads. strike out for the smaller
towns or even for the great cities. and
especially to the towns where there
is work In the manufactures, figuring
that the five years from 16 to 21 in a
shop will leave them with better
than a red.topped buggy, and maybe
a horse, for all their toll. You can
not change nor can you blame their
fathers. THEY worked until they were
81, and the system is a sort Of reli-
gion with them. The idea of shar-
ing real money with the boys is some
thing that would seem ridiculous to
most OF them. or course there are
some of the wiser and predetermined
ones who DO share. and where they
do the root Of the discomfort is re-
moved for that boy. and driven deeper
In for those who know the circum-
stances.
With some of these boys ambition
urges them on so keenly that no plow-
handles can hold them. and they go
into the professions and hammer their
salvation out with the energy and de-
termination that no discouragements
can chill. The records show what
they have done In every channel Of
human endeavor. Neither in the
fields nor in the garrets can some
spirits be checked or blighted.
So. too. the irksome sadness Of ru-
raj work often sends some Of the
bolder spirits away to seek the "bub-
BILE reputation at the cannons mouth" :"
And many a boy slips away to the
larger towns. enlists in army or navy.
and from some far OF port or fort
writes home that he is now a men,
ber of Uncle Sans household. And
great is tho lamentation. usually, on
the receipt Of these letters. And
sometimes tho boy comes back, weary
OF the glamour of military or naval
life. and plows happily in the fields
with his old service cap or broad
brimmed military hat on his head.
But when he comes back. he's his