Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1909-10-27
TODAY AND YESTERDAY.
A Comparison of the Farmer of
Today and of Quarter of a
Century Ago.

An anxious inquirer wants to
know what has become of the man
that used to carry a cabbage leaf in
The crown of his hat to ward off
sunstroke, says the Washington
Post.
We remember hint we'll. He wore
other things besides the cabbage leaf
and hat; items, blue jeans trousers,
brown jeans coat, cotton shirt.
WOODEN socks, and cowhide boots, the
last named coming in wooden box,
big at one end and little at the other,
beginning with number twelyes-
mems size and tapering down to the
copper toes of the small fry. In the
winter time he creased his boots
with mutton tallow to render them
soft and pliable, but even then it re-
quired the combined efforts of a boot
jack and the entire family to begin
his undressing.
He built his barn on the crest of
the hill and his home in the valley
below, so as to be near the spring.
Tradition and the almanac governed
his farming methods. He planted his
potatoes in the dark of the moon and
his beans in the light of the moon,
and split his cows tail to cure her of
the "holler horn" He arose at four
in the morning, fed his stock by Ian
tern light, and sat on the fence wait
ing for dawn to enable him to work
in the field. His wants were simple.
The farm products supplied the table
with almost everything except sugar
and coffee. These ne traded for at
the STORE" giving in exchange
spring chickens at to 10 cents each
and eggs at 10 to 10 cents dozen.
At hog killing time he had fresh
meat as long as the sausage and
spare ribs lasted. After that he went
from bacon to ham, and then from
ham to bacon, with a kit of salt
mackerel added about twice year.
His social diversions were few In
summer he was too busy and in win
ter the roads were too bad for much
travel. In spite of that he got to the
county seat occasionally and served
on the jury two or three times. Once
he went to the "city" as the nearest
metropolis was vaguely designated.
After that he was wont to shake his
head at unexpected moments and
mutter, "Such rippin' and rar-
I'M"
Readers of certain class of mag
azines imagine that his favorite oath
was "by heck" but this is mis-
take. 81 granny" and plague take
it" were his strongest explosives as
rule, the former indicative of
modified form of ancestry worship,
while the latter bears evidence of
transmitted English oath, it in turn
barking back to the days of London's
pestilence. All in all, his was drab
colored existence, broken, nut not
frightened by hog cholera, quarterly
interests and annual taxes. Like as
not. the whole thing ended by getting
caught in a cold rain storm; then
came a sudden chill and pneumonia,
or, as they called it then, "the lung
fever" He left the farm and the
mortgage to his eldest son and told
everybody he was "willin' to CO.
and no one seemed to doubt it.
SO that's what has become Of him.
Another reigns in his stead. but
everything has changed. Other
times, other manners. His successor
has a house on the hill, with hot
water, heat, electric lights. and a
bath tub. The mortgage has been
replaced by bank account. Maca-
dam roads, tailor cut clothes, an au-
tomobile, scientific farming, rural
free delivery, COWS MIXED with a
suction pump, eggs thirty cents d
dozen, butter forty cents a pound
cash. Where is the man with the
cabbage leaf? Non est, we tell you.
lie is as extinct as the dodo.