Norwich bulletin., 1910-09-03

they can't bear this and they can't
bear that some one else must always
be opening the way for them or lifting
them over the distractions in it. The
simple truth seems to be the old and
trite one that strength comes only
through striving and struggle, and that
he who will not work shall not eat
unless he is mean enough or dishonest
enough 10 eat some of the food another
man has earned. just at present, look
ing the world and my own neighbors
over. ] am inclined to think that there
are good many-aItogether too many,
of that last sort.
Life isn't a picnic; it's a rather seri-
Gus proposition. It's a far from ad-
mirable view of it, that which sees in
il only a series of days and years to
be got through with, somehow, any
old way the easiest that offers. Rath-
er. it is a series of tasks, the doing of
which is honorable: the Sinking of
which is dishonorable. Furthermore,
il is the doing of these tasks in the
right spirit and the right way which
lea DIS to higher manhood and woman
hood The lodging of them leads to
degeneracy every time. He is not
philanthropist who seeks to make life
easier. merely for the sake of ease;
rather is he an insidious enemy of his
kind. The true man, confronted with
task or a duty, does not ask whether 1t
is easy or hard; he does it. He does
not ask which is the easier way to do
It: he does 1t the right way. Perhaps
he tears his overalls and blisters his
hands doing it. He takes the blisters
as part of the days work, and would
as little think OF whimpering about
them as he does of Whimpering about
the incoming flood tide or about the
sunset And don't forget that, where
-. IL; -nnly
will have turned them to callouses
which will make possible the doing of
even harsher tasks.
How often we hear parents say of
their children that they intend the
young folks shall have an easier time
of It than they. the old ones, had. The
spirit of this desire is unselfish, but,
alas, too often it is equally unwise. The
plants raised in my hotbed have to go
through a harsh process of hardening
Off before it is safe to put them out
in the spring. A good many of them
wither and die I'm this period, no matter
how careful l may be- The boys and
girls brought up i'll ease, taught to re-
ly ON others in ali difficulties, Injured to
no hardships and habituated to consid-
er the easy way as the most desirable
find. when at last they are pitchforked
out into a cold and unfeeling world,
that it's q mighty unhappy place Tor
them. They would be better off, then.
If they had known less coddling and
more trouble.
OF course, there are extremes on
both sides. Because old man Hoskins
was compelled as a boy, to help NOW
his fathers broad meadow with a
scythe. is no reason why, in these days
Of moving machines, he should compel
his son to NOW them the same hard
and slow way. Nor. because Neighbor
Sherman when a boy had his arm
broken in a runaway Sn1aSh-up is that
a reason why he should forbid his son
to go near the horse and wagons or
learn anything of the management of
the farm teams.
"A world full of toughened barbarians
might be strenuous, but it wouldn't be
desirable. A world full of n1ollycod-
lies might be peaceful, but it wouldn't
be interesting. Just at present, the
tendency is towards the mollycoddle
side. And it is one to be deplored. to
be preached against, to be headed off, IL
possible. There are drags enough on
the wheels of the worlds progress as
it is. without our adding more. What
the world needs in business, in politics,
In ali sorts of daily emergencies is men
and women who will never give a
thought to what may be the easy way
but will sternly and unfiinchingIy set
themselves to doing their work in the
ri ght way" no matter how hard it may
be nor how much it may cost.
THE FARMER.