The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-22
.sy-Hr BEND IN THE ROAD 2

Another book that opens up V1SraS of possible happiness. providing stinn- ulatine reflection even for those who have no thought of following it's sug- zestous. is .sThe Bend in the Road 2 bv Truman A. DeWeese. MT DeWeese talks sot persuas7vely of the joys that 2 city man may derive from a. small farm that many readers will be 1n- cltned to disregard his sensible eau lions as to the necessity of little h1owIedge and experience before un- oertazing agricultural experiments, and the delusiTeness of expecting to make money out of an enterprise to which thesu man who keeps his city vo- cation can devote only a part of his time -sThe small farm is not for the city man who has not graduated from the kindergarten of human experi- ence" he warns ftIt is not for the city man who expects to make money out of everything he owns or does. It IS not for the man who has never learn ed to do anything with his hands
 The book is characterized throughout by canny common sense and genuine enthusiasm. It's peculiar distinction is that it is written equally from the point of view of the city man and from that of the country man The author, who was once a. farmers boy, knows just what farming really means, where its ESnu1n6 JOyS llSs ana Cne real pleasure Of getting close to nature in stead of ad1airing it from distance. He advises the kind of hard work that results in real interest; he urges the satisfaction of actual contact with the soil But at the same time he is not insens1b4e to the delight of puttering, and would not have his readers make a hardship of what ought to be a pleasure He vigorously inVeighs against the folly of living in an elabo- rate villa when one might have a. gen uine farmhouse. He insists, in short upon the real thing. Yetehe points out all sorts of pleasures that the i'm amateur farmer may furnish him, to the amusement, sometimes, of his country neighbors.ss One of these lies in arranging the color scheme of the farm in such a way as to present a beautffuI picture from May to Decem- ber-'' This is neither so difficult nor so impractical as it seems. The book is not treatise upon agriculture, but it throws out hints that will take the fancy of all who have the instinct that lies in most of us for country life
 Then there are advantages to health, such as the city-dWeller who learns to be satisfied with a physical condi- ton that would make a, really healthy man take to his bed can scarcely con cetve. The swinging scythe not only makes the sweetest music, but it is the best possible medicine for; their lives
 A grubbing- hoe is more effective in the restoration of health than a golf club, and 1t gives it's user the pleasant feeling of having accomplished some thing The life of the real farmer is of course not commonly made up of a round of pastoral delights nor is the lot of the farmers boy always as joy fuI as idyllic poetry represents it; but for the growing boy there is no such place as the amateur farm. Mir De- Weese makes us feel the injustice of depriving the boy of the health and happiness 1t affords. But on the whole he does best justice to those priceless satisfactions which can hard ly be explained to those who have never experienced their Hke=the sat isfaction. for instance, of sitting on winter nights before a roaring fire in the fireplace which you have helped to build with your own hands out of stones drawn from your own fields
 The Bend in the Road'' makes solid
 contentment seem no difficult thing
 to attain, and in the minds of many
 readers it will stir pleasant memories.