The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1911-05-25
THE FARMERS BOY.


twenty of the nations largest corpor-
ations held in New York, the other
day it was a matter of comment that
of those present, twelve were far
mer's boys
When lthe youngster at home on
the farm gets 1.-The blues and fam
cies that there is mo- longer the
chance that th re used to be to rise
above the momotony and drudgery Of
a tiller Of the ssoil, he can think Of
those twelve captains of industry who
started aus he is starting and remem-
Der nhat when they were boys there
that it was hopeless ambition to
aspire DO win their way to the front
I'm the city.
He wants to remember that the
farm has evolved some of the worlds
greatest men aid SOM of its most
conspicuously useful ONES and that
with THE increasing activities of the
nation in all directions there is now,
the exceptional man.
In the contemplation of the stirring
achiev ments of the farmers boy past
and present, if he has ima aginatiOn
and soul he will find helpful inspira-
tion When the day seems dark and
the future full of gloom. Let him rec
cNect-as the world sur ly docs
that it lwas the farm that gave us
Abraham Lincoln, ONE of the worlds
most majestic figures; that gave us
Andrew Jackson, Millard Fillmore, the
mart yred Garfield, Horace Greeley Sir
lsgaac Newton and the briIIiai It Car
lyle 1t was a farmers som-Eli Whit
noy,Wh cro ated the cotton gin which
laid the foundation for the growth of
the cotton industry, now worth $780,
000, GOO a, " ar to the United States
and a farmers boy-Elas Howe, who
mancipatcd womauhcod from tine
slavery Of the we die by iuyenting the
sewing machine
Long before Rob.rt Fulton sailed
his steamboat, the Clermoat up the
Hudson, J',lln tit,l, the 4 geniCms
product OF a PENN ,ylVania farm dem
G strated that a boat could be propol-
led by aeam by equippig skiff
with an ngine and sailing his craft
uq the Le.awara with its aid Another
brainy farmers boy-Oliver Evans
sometimes called theWatt oil America
Naa, Jhe first to build amid operate a
locomotive in the II ttod staJes, Cyrus
Mccormick, inventor of the reaper the
Whirr of wlich is today heard 'rounJ
the e2roh, was the mod-st som of am
ordinary lllinC.s farm r The first
machine to make tacks was the crea-
item Of 4 Ma9sa., mas Ats farm ilatl--
Tlumas BGantaart and the device
that furnished uhe. wCFld With the
modern screw was the work of poor
Vermont ge Thomas Harvey, a
quiet, thoughtful farmers sem To the
resourc fumQSS of an Ohio farm lad
Charles +. Brush-who inveLted the
dynamo, the world is indebted for its
present day great industrial and pow
plants that give empl Vmu t to
millions of hands. Thomas Addison,
most brillial of the world S inventors
sponsor fCr the electric light, the pho
noSraph and hundred other devices,
wa,s tin sem of a poor farm laborer.
X. NJ. Turner, inventor of the acouS-
ticon, the dictU-raph and the iEltericT
telephone bearing his t. ame, now uni
versally used, when not e1lsa sed ON
his father S Indiana farm used to hire
himself out to neighboring farmers at
20 cents a day Sc ding corn, at which
he was acclaimed an expert From "a
| Wisconsin, farm came G. l.. Shol s. the
inventor of the typewriter which rev.
olutionized the business methods OF
thd worlG tIs.l !
Where service is the emily creden-
tial THAT commands recognition and
man's ability must square with his
responsibility, the farmers boy"
who has hcarkened to the call of tn,
BIZ city will be four d today in the
front rank of the world useful work
ers in every large city on the face of
the earth. For he makes good and the
world needs him. u,
i