The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-08-23
How the Preacher Became Success
full Homesteader

full Homesteader
For the benefit of any of my aged
brethren mot too aged-say fifty or
sol who may be tired of precarious
existence as book agents or insurance
solicitors and to suggest way of es-
cape to any clerk, teacher, bookkeep-
err cashier, stenographer or other
mere male toiler who has been crowd
ed to the wall by "woman's invasion"
| will set down just what a man with
out reference to age, race, color or
previous condition Of servitude may
do on homestead land In the state OF
perpetual sunshine, says William JUS
tin Harsha in an article entitled "The
Preacher and Potato" in the August
Success Magazine" OF course II
you are so constituted that city life
is the only life for you; If, as a New
Yorker once said to me, you love the
very mud OF the Streets" or II, as a
clergyman, the breath OF your nostrils
Is to argue learnedly in your church
councils on predestination or infant
salvation or falling from grace the
simple life | am to describe will have
no attractions for you. If you are
able to purchase improved landau
eighty In Illinois an onnge grove in
California, a peach orchard in the
valley OF the Gunnison or an abandon
ed farm in New England--this may be
the thing to do. But If you posses,
but slender means or practically none
at all (the walking is good from tn,
EasD, and for health considerations
or any other reason you wish to com,
to the playground of the nation" ant
grow up with the sagebrush, / will re
late my experience to you in the hop,
that II may be helpful For well
know, from letters of inquiry sent L
me and from less direct sources, tina
many deadline fellows on who's,
heads the almond tree has begun t
spread its blossoms would be far han
pier If they were to follow the sensI
bic trend of modern taste and. ge
back to the soil
Something more than five years Az
then, we found ourselves with an In
valid son, two dependent daughters
stable bit of worry and abou
twelve hundred dollars in availabl
cash My wife had often said tina
never, never would she 20 on a farm
TO live Just as in the days of blush
ing maidenhood she had asseverate
that she would never marry a mini.
ter though every hair of his head wa
hung with a diamond-which made
morally certain that both OF thes
contingencies would fall to her lot
this is to say. minus the diamonds. /
the crisis gripping us she was the frs
to suggest a homestead. Accordin,
| ly, after looking around carefully W
| decided on hundred and sixty acre
in one OF the beautiful parks of IN
. mountains of Colorado. For this W
paid Uncle Sam sixteen dollars as ii
itial payment and the final paymer
Will amount to fourteen dollars NOR
We can prove up now at any tim,
the proof consisting in assuring tn
government commissioners, throug
competent Witnesses. that we have r,
sided continuously for FIVE years O
the land and have shown an intentio
4 TO make Il our home. The HON,
steader is allowed absences OF nc
longer than six months at a time; h
IS also allowed six months from IN
date OF his entering the land to a
tually move upon 1t. But the day
OF the old too-easy faruds on the go
eminent In grasping land under pr
tense OF homesteading 1t are over.