The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1912-10-04

high places, but perhaps those high
places will be worth considering.
l am farmer and the son of a
farmer and my experience has proved
to me that the farmer and his family
are benefited .industrially, intellectu-
ally, socially, financially and morally
and have more common comforts and
happiness by attending fairs. Here
is the picture of "before taking"
Till I was 18 my father work
ed through the same old routine year
after year. We always felt quite
proud if our crops or stock happened
to look little better than those of
our neighbors. So we were satisfied
to raise pretty good crops of corn
and cotton and drive team of horses
or mules that in our opinion were
better than Browns or Weston's.
They, of course, also thought their
crops and stock were better than ours.
The women folks thought no one could
excel them in gardening, butter-mak-
ing, cooking or fancy work, quilting,
or sewing. In our narrow boundaries
we acquired an ignorant self-conceit
that made us feel little superior to
the rest of mankind, yet we felt an
awe of townfolks because we didn't
know much about them before our
awakening at the fair.
Farming the Old Way.
We had but little farm machinery
and that was generally left out in the
field to take care of itself when not
in use. The mud in the yard and
lot was sight when it rained. We
caught rain water in a barrel some
times for washing; for other purposes
the hard water from the we'll was
used. My mother and sisters carried
most that was used at the house about
four rods up three wobbly steps to
an unscreened porch and kitchen.
We had tolerably good wagon and
buggy, but my mother seldom had
time to go anywhere churning with
wooden dash churn, washing with
a rub-board and boiling clothes in a
kettle out of doors, besides house
work and milking, gave her exercise
enough to make little time to rest
at home so welcome that she did not
care to go anywhere else
was beginning to consider myself
very much of young man, fully
capable of entering the state of matri-
mony if could find someone who
could cook, wash and milk, take care
of the, shack and feed the pigs, raise
chickens, garden and make our
clothes for nothing. Any surplus
products she could sell to pay for
extra groceries or any clothes She
wanted. A woman, we thought, ought
to do all this because-well, because
woman is a woman. However I
didn't get one to do these things for
me and now Pm very glad 1 did not.
My sister, nearly 16 years of age,
was keeping company with some of
the neighbor boys and quite ready to
marry the one who had the best horse
and buggy and wore red tie and cuff
trousers.
don't remember exactly how it
happened, but an agent for Farm and
Ranch stayed over night at our house
and sent US the paper for year as
token of appreciation of our hos
pitality. We read it little, looked
at the pictures sure that we knew
more than the writer's and assuring
ourselves that the illustrations we're
just made up to attract notice. But
when we read about the Dallas Fair,
my brothers and sisters and I be-
came interested. We concluded we
wanted to see that fair, so we went
to work. That was our first real in
dustrial arousing.
The View Was BrOadened.
We had been used to doing what
we were told to do if we could not
get out of it in some way, but now
we clamored for work-and pay. Our
parents agreed to pay us money for
extra work and we all had plenty for
expenses when the time came for the
fair. So we went-father and moth
er, too. We went-we saw and we
were conquered.
The flower display was a glimpse
of paradise. The art and textile
rooms were attractive to the women
especially. We saw woderful musical
instruments and heard wonderful
music. We heard some of the best
vocal and instrumental soloists in the
world and we thought of one beauti-
full thing about our country home
the songs of the birds, which we had
noticed so little. We made up our