The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-07-21

LONELINESS.
week of the markets was doing we'll.
AS result he usually managed to
strike all the slumps in the market
when he had stock or grain to sell.
With market paper delivered at his
gate each morning he could follow
prices of farm produce closely and
take advantage of rising market.
This one factor alone has paid the cost
Of the rural free delivery many times
over.
The market reports were not the
only part of the paper that benefited
the farmer. He no longer got his news
week old. but had it served up al
most as hot as if he had lived in town
This daily contact with the things that
were happening in the world bright
ened him up. rubbed off the dust and
gave him new interest in life.
The shiftless farmer who went to
town two or three times a week on the
pretense of getting the mail" only to
waste half day or so each time and
maybe come home "boozed up" in the
bargain, was deprived of his excuse
and fell into the habit of spending his
extra time fixing up about the place.
The farmer who had been enterpris-
ing before became more enterprising
and had more time to put his ideas
into practice.
Along with the r. F. d. came better
roads, and when the farmer did go to
town he could make the trip in much
less time than he did before. His dali
ly papers and magazines made him as
well informed as any of the business
men of the town. The days of the
"hayseed' were numbered
Along with the r. F. D. came a
great increase in the circulation of
the agricultural papers. The old type
Of papers edited by men who had seen
little of farming except from car
window came to an end about this
time, and their places were taken by
papers edited by men who had grown
up on the soil and who had never got
very far away from it. These pa
pers taught the farmers the value of
better methods. They taught what
these methods were and how they
could be applied. Above all, they in
spired the farmers to do the best they
knew how, to respect their calling and
to put it on business basis.
Along with the r. F. d. came the
telephone Some of the first lines were
little more than cheap instruments
connected to barbed wire fence, but
they served the purpose. Then follow
ed lines put up on willow poles and
finally modern lines as substantially
built and as efficient as money could
buy An automatic device to prevent
any one listening except the parties
talking is in use in some localities.
Most communities prefer the party
line. however, because of it's social
features. Often after supper on a
stormy winter evening some one will
put in general call and furnish some
instrumental music for the benefit of
every one on the line. Then some one
else will sing song, some one will
run off a few musical records on a
monograph. and an otherwise lonely
evening will be passed pleasantly.
Immediately after dinner is generally
conceded to be the women folks
hour at the phone. They will stand
and visit, often a dozen of them at
time. until the proverbial loneliness Of
farm life is entirely forgotten.
The principal use of the telephone is
for business. The modern farmer re-
lies upon his telephone as much as
does the business man. Most Of the