Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-08-15
A RETIRED FARMER FEEDING Hs PIGS.

4
A RETIRED FARMER FEEDING HIS PIGS.
OF hardships, and the reward was only
few of LIES necessities. But these
| hardships developed a class of hardy,
| virile men who have conquered the
American continent and brought it I'M
| der mans control.
The days Of pioneering on the farm
are well nigh past. Nowthat the rough
edges are worn of the true pleasure
OF life In the open is beginning to be
appreciated At first people crowded
together in the cities for protection,
later for convenience in transacting
business. The city never was intend
ed primarily as a place to live. In the
early days the cities were deserted as
soon as the danger which had forced
the people together was over. They
scattered out to their FARMS where
they could live In peace and plenty.
When the development of the city
as business center began no particu-
lar provision was made for the home
life. People lived where they could,
existing for their business rather than
making their business exist for them,
y
the United States have been develop
ing the home life always has Jagged
behind. True, some of the men who
were most successful in accommodating
wealth built palatial homes. But
there is no room in the city for many
such homes. Rather must people live
TERED one above another. layer upon
layer. On all sides. above and below,
the space in whick they are free to
move at will is marked by strictly de-
fined limits. No wonder that in such
circumstances man has longed for a
fourth dimension in which he could
expand.
People have endured these conditions
because it paid them to do so. Bush
ness fed and clothed them. but BUSH
ness demanded that they be always
close at hand. They knew that some
where outside the web of paved streets
lay an open country. but they knew Of
no way in which they could make q
living there. The stories they heard
from the country were stories of poor
ly paid toll, few pleasures and q pre-
mature old age. They preferred the
discemforts to which they were accus-
tened.
The coming Of electric transportation
widened the horizon of the city. 1t
made IL possible for the best paid la
borers to have houses OF their own. 1t
allowed the salaried man, who put in
FEWER hours. to live almost in the
country. With a glimpse of suburban
and country life and what 1T really
meant to have plenty of room to
breathe, the city dweller began to cher
ish an ambition. He began to long for
an acre Of his own, with a garden and
q few berries and some chickens.
where he could rest and grow old.
The advance in the price Of food
products made it not only possible,
but comparatively easy, for the man
who has given the best years of his
life to the city to retire to the coun-
try. Perhaps 1 should not use the |
word retire. The swirlitg rush of |
twentieth century life has made the |
thought of retiring distasteful. The |
ambitious man let's go his work with |
He would rather die in |
the harness than to rust away his re- |
days in idleness. But there |
comes time when the strongest man |
feels his grip weaken and his mind |
falter. The hard knocks of a strenu- |
ous life begin to make themselves
felt. The long hours grow weary on |
his shoulders. Some men are situated /
80 fortunately that they can let go by /
degrees. working as they feel like it /
and turning over to others the tasks
of which they tire. Most men. how
ever. must continue to meet the exact
ng demands of business to the far
hest notch or drop out entirelv It is
70 them that the country makes its
strongest appeal.
A house and an acre or more of land
can be purchased or rented more |
cheaply than a house and lot In the |
city. The home can be supplied with Il
all the conveniences that the family L
were used to In the city. The trolley Il
and the telephone keep them In touch
with their city friends. The city man
who is past the days of the hard work
demanded in a mercantile establish
nent or factory can still make a fair
living from/the soil. The returns from
IN even acre or SO of ground viii go
Tar toward paying the family's living
expenses.
The pleasure Of life in the open,
where the air is pure and there is
ime to dream and room to be happy,
will add years to the lives of the
lew made farmer and his wife. The
reedom from responsibility calls back
he light heartedness of youth. The
tyranny of Office hours is done away
With. The luxury of independence is
lttained-
No sign of the return to- the country
3 more encouraging than the tendency
f the old farmers and tn IL wives to
pend the remainder Of Il Ieir days in
he country. Some of tho old farmers