The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-07-20

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while we dc not think he has touched
the core OF the matter, what he says
ic suggestive and may put some OF
our farmers with boys to thinking.
orr own opinion is that a large num-
hor of Young people raised on farms
leave and go to the towns and cities
hoco1ea of their ISOLATED life on the
country. especially here in the South,
and their lack of social advantages.
Rut for the country church., with its
/ once A months preaching service, life
in the rural districts would be abso-
Iutely devoid of anything like social
privileges. When the country be-
comes more thickly settled and farm
ers and their wives shall make their
homes attractive, the young people
will have no desire to leave the farm.
But let the article be allowed to give
its own version of the causes that
lead boys to forsake the farm. It
says:
You frequently have something to
say abou keeping boys on the farm.
My opinion is that most boys who
leave the farm would like to remain
on it in the first place, but their "a
rents won't let them. One class of
parents coaXes them to leave the farm
and another class drives the boys
away as, mercilessly as though they
were IN invading foe.
We'll have no material change of
u11l11 W. SCI q Il W. "
the evil and train a different class Of
parents. One class of parents has
one ambitiOn-to send John to the city
to make him famous eve after. This
would be laudable enough were it not
the result of vanity rather than ambi-
ton. John is considered a superior
being and is made the idol of the
household and the sissy BOY of the
whole neighborhood. John goes to
college and father and mother slave
away the best years of their lives to
get money to keep his dress
ed up: and John usual
ly regards their sacrifices by learning
to smoke cigarettes, drink whiskey and
all the contingent vices, and when fin
ally graduated becomes a poor lawyer,
doctor, street car conductor or falls
into the bread line and that is the
end of hin. If John had been train
ed to do his share of work, given a
good education, he would have MADE
a first-class farmer, Independent, d
man to be proud of.
not vain. They look with scorn on
anything that savors of show. John
must always be a slave, as they are.
He must work, work, work, never
nave any pleasure. He must never.
want anything pretty or comfortable,
never nav anything till ma and pa
are dead and gone. 1t is all for him..
Z He must have no pleasures, must obey
q the law, must have no ideas Till after
j pa dies. Now what happens to John
No. 9? He rebels, but he is in physical
fear of his master. The hard work
develops a strong condition and strong
character. He has ambition; he
makes up his mind to get away as
soon as he gets old enough
to hoe his own row. He
gets nothing but growls from his
father, who is as much too hard as
John No. is father was too easy. He
is called no account etc., but the
day finally comes and John leaves
home-some time between two days.
but he goes away. A mothers heart
is broken, and perhaps a fathers.
John has character and fights his
way to the front. His habit of always
being at work helps him. He wins;
the world calls him a self-made man,
and his father fondly believes, and
half truly, that his s-trenuousness and
hardships made John great. John
knows that he has made money per-
haps, but there is always the old desire
to get back to the farm. He. is not
contented. He sees, night and day,
the green fields and trees, smells the
fresh morning air and hears the rob-
ms all his life, and hopes that some
day he will be back to the old home.
| But business ties hold him with a grip
1 Of iron, and that is the end Of John
l No. 2.
~'IhOuSandS OF pictures cOuld De
. drawn of these conditions that take
4 the boys from the farm, and not be
overdrawn. If any father Of John
] reads this, let him stop and think
/ that John is a boy with a mans heart
/ and a mans ambition, with a child's
love for him. Johns future happi-
ness depends on him. There can new
er be real success unless happiness
] comes first. A lot depends on the
i mother but a whole let more de-
j ponds on the father, and no man is
u fit to be father unless he first fully
= REALIZES the grave responsibility of
parenthoOd.
Make a study of John as you do
of the sheep and other farm prob