Norwich bulletin., 1909-04-17

Is unhappy through his unfulfllled de-
! sires. The only way on earth TO be
contented is to be satisfied with what
you've got; and that's a lesson men
and women don't and won't learn.
Then the farmer has to do dirty
work. Yea, verify, brethren. He gath
ereth dirt unto himself, hayseed in his
hair, dust in his undershirt gravel ~
his boots, and CRIME under his finger
nails. Also he perspireth profusely
and he getteth slivers into his. hands.
It's too durn bad, isn't 1t? But HIS work
isn't any dirtier than the blacksmith's,
or the painters, or the carpenter = or
the brickIayer's. or the sailors, and the
dirt he acquires he can remove more
easily and completely than many 9TH
ers can. There are men who wear pet
ter clothes and show whittier hands,
whose souls are dirtied with foulness-
soap and sand can't scour off.
His life is isolated and humdrum,
they say. Is 1t isolation to be the CEN
trail figure in "a hundred acres Of PAL
pitating life-life animal and vegetable
to tend and nourish score of crops;
to breed and bring up cattle and horses
and chickens and cossets; to grow
friends with the birds and to learn the
shy habits of the trout; to live half the
wear IN a beauty Oh EIGtHGAs anu INV
ers. and all the year to nave spread
Wide before you the great book of Ma
ture. wherein is written wisdom higher
and deeper and vaster than any that
was ever printed and PACED? To be
sure you don't have to go to your tasks
crowded into a stuffy car with jos
Ting mob: you don't have to do your
work on a stool before three feet of
desk; you don't have to be troddep on
or to tread on some one else, every
time you move. If it's Isolation" to
be deprived of these things your soul
bankers for-then get off the farm
You don't belong on it; with all due re-
spect for you, you aren't fit for it nor
worthy of It; get off it; go to your own
place and stop whimpering! And much
good may it do you'll
Then, farmers aren't social enough,
says another. Dear dear: what next?
Anyone who has ever known the daily
history Of country store. has learned
that a certain sort of farmers are
about as social as they make 'em. And
anyone who has ever lived on coun-
try road knows that a certain sort Of
farmers wives never grow rusty from
lack OF "gadding" the trouble is that
both Of these sorts are poor sorts;
failures at farm-keeping and at home
making If they would tend to bust
ness" both sorts would be better off,
and their whole neighborhood more
comfortable and contented. They're
too social altogether
Dear fellow farmer, you know where
your shoe pinches, but 1 do not.
know which toe is cramped in my
boot but you do not. These outsiders
who try to diagnose our discomfort
don't know what's the matter with
either of our footwear. Indeed, it's not
much worse than that of others. 1t is
fairly adapted to our needs. II Wen
only adapt ourselves a little too
Farming isn't all beer and skittles all
fun and frivolity. It's hard work, but
the majority of men must do hard
work or the world will stop rolling
the world of humanity and progress,
] mean. It's undergrad work. but so
long as human society, government
laws, are constituted at present all
productive work will be underpaid. It
is really no harder work than that
done by other men in other avocations;
it is really about as well paid, consid
ering skill and capital involved as
other manual labor. We must not ex-
| pect to earn fair wages for our work
and make forty or fifty per cent. on
our investment. too. Honest men can't
do that sort of thing and it's better
Ten AiilllOH LILIES UELLtI. 70 De oil
| honest man than merely a rich man.
Sometime, when men have outqrown
| childish greed, and have become really
| manly-when they have learned that
| the only sure individual good blossoms
! from the general wefare-when they
! have fully emerged from the savagery
and barbarism of competition into the
/ enlightenment Of helpful brotherliness
! in that good time coming all the
! problems that make the farmers life
a daily struggle will drop into forget
| fulness. and he will stand UP in his
rightful place. the most worthy and
I most hOnored co-worker with Nature
| for the good Of the world. But that
| good time for the farmer won't come
| till it comes. also. for all his fellow
| men Of whatever calling; not till hu-
man nature has developed into some
| thing finer and truer than now. Com
| missioners can't bring that time: in
! dividuals can't bring it; but. perhaps,
1 you and I may be able to ~et one or
| two stones loose in what is to be the
route Of its triumphal approach, thus
| making so much easier the work Of
| the futures road makers Let's try a
| pebble or two, anyway
THE FAD NT-D