The Falls City tribune., 1910-11-18
LEAVING FARM.
A Young Mans Reasons For leav-
ing The Farm.

91Nh u bioNhaoAoh Go - WY -
many country boys leave the farm.
As a rule, this question has been
discussed by older men who attempt
to analyze general conditions. How
ever, in my reading of eight or nine
farm periodicals have never seen
the question discussed by any of the
boys themselves.
Since, in order to show my position
| shall have to be very personal, do
not take it that l am trying to be a
little of a braggart and to herald
anything | have even done or hope
TO do. I tell my own story, because
it seems as if it might illustrate the
state of affairs of a great many
other farm boys.
am under twenty. | was born on
farm and went to country school until
[ could enter the high school in a
nearby city, boarding at home and 60
ing to town each day ON a trolley
which runs near the farm. | always
did chores night and morning, and
spent my vacation working OH the
farm. One winter | was out of
school working at home. After my
graduation | went to college, taking
the regular course. Just now | am a
sophomore and am wondering about
what I'm going to do when college
days are a thing of the past.
Just here | want to correct a cur
rent idea in the minds of some peo-
pie to the effect that country boys
in college form a class and cult by
themselves. Some do. They will
not adapt themselves to the condition
at hand. They go about wearing the
clothes that are years behind the
times, with heads in need of a hair
cut, using language that they know
better thar to use. They try to par
AIDE their plainness, and lack of mean
Such fellows are rapidly disappearing
and I'm glad to say that more of that
kind in the modern college hail from
the city than from the country. In
school, it is no crime to be poor, but
it is to parade the fact.
Personally, in high school and in
college, I have never been made to
feel "out of it" because I'm from the
country. 1t has beep my observation
bankers, merchants and farmers are
en- equal terms. At college do not
nave as many ~conyeniences and as
good living as at home, for our
home in the country will compare faV
orablv with middle-class town homes.
When in high school | began to so
20 parties and entertainments with
my own school-fellows. The princi-
pal 1eason that I did not associate
socially with the country people was
not because felt superior to them,
but because there vas nothing do
ing" in The social line. During the
last six years there have not been
more th;n fifteen social gatherings of
tho young people of the community.
Thus. it may be SAID that | have been
driven to town for companionship.
I do not feel ashamed of the farm
or of farming. l like both. During
the school year | am ever looking for
ward to home, a pair of overalls n
the stock. College, contrary to the
popular opinion, has taught me to
look up to many phases of farm life
rather than to despise everything con
nected with it.
Financially, farming is the best
thing for me, because | can have a
fair start in a rich section of the
country AT the hest. teaching will
never bring me more than thirteen
hundred to fifteen hundred dollars a
year. Newspaper work has almost
the same limits, with longer hours
than farming. Professional work
means several more years of school
ing, with many years of living on
-a.bi,u ,,,+; Lone COTS established.