Evening star., 1914-08-15

charge of $720 per year, or within S14t
a year Of our saving on provisions.
| But even at that, doesn't it look to you
as If 1t had working for Uncle Sam bea'
| both ways from Sunday?
| 1t should be remembered that these ng.
| ures are based on only about six months
experience. The experience of anothel
six months may necessitate very vital al
terations in them. We already have learn
i ed enough. though, to see that it woulo
| mean lot Of hard work. 1t would near
getting up at daylight-long before day.
light in the winter-and working unti
| after dark. There wouldn't be any hoil-
days or Sundays off. I couldn't fan my
self in hammock during the blisterine
heat of dog days nor toast my shins pc
fore the fire while winter blizzard raged
1t would be far cry from electric rams
the vital question Is: Would it be worth
while?
Why It Is Worth While.
1 think it would. 1t gives me the cold
sweats even now to think Of the year
after year sameness and hopelessness OF
our life in the city; the scrimping and
saving in endeavor to come out even
at the end of the twelvemonth, the ut
ter blankness of the future. l read the
| other day of an old German who has
made something like quarter or a
million dollars growing raefshes and on
ions and cabbages out in Iowa. Tne
story said he worked twelve to fifteen
hours a day and hadn't taken a day off
in twenty years. Offhand 1t seems like
a drab and dreary existence. But the
point OF the story is yet to come The
German was happy and contented and
because he knew happiness for him was
not to he found elsewhere.
Doesn't that seem like the answer TO
it? He owns broad acres and many
houses, has money in the bank and oonds
in safe deposit. He could go through
his remaining years in idleness and lux
ury. But he refuses to do 1t because
he is happy where he is:
When I think of the nights nave
lain awake, wondering what would oe-
fall my family should the Grim Reaper
call me to the hereafter, it seems to me
this Iowa German of the onions and
radishes and cabbages has found n1e
in all its fullness. He has worked long
hours and humbly. but by doing so ne
has made the future secure, anu no niah
Is his master.
Sentiment Also a Factor.
Nor is the grip which the country
has taken upon US limited to material
things. Sentimentally it makes strong
appeal. The time is coming when our
children will grow up and leave home.
We shall want them to come back home
for Thanksgiving and Christmas and
other holidays, and we want them 10
have home to come to that means
something in the way of memories. DO
YOU suppose How Dear to My Heart
Are the Scenes Of My Childhood" would
ever have been written had the authors
childhood been spent in city fat:
old S15 peonle !, .n than mi It is for children some
day Jane and I will be old. We don't
want to be old in the city. What can
life-hold for man and Wlie, aovaneeu
beyond the age Of workaday activity.
their children married and gone, ant aat
with nothing to do but keep city mai
in order? In the country could putter
around the chickens and with the garden
and fruit Jane could putter with her
flowers. The birds would sing, the pees
would drone for u.s. There wonia De the ths
rrassNthe peace Of the evening Of the
day would bring peace to the evening VI
our lives. &, ~.
city Asphalt streets ana and. or'ek Ca want a,,i
and must be replaced. Gods green EARN.
like God himself. is eternal To me the
meanest piece Of ground that ever grew
a ragweed Is more TO De uesireu ehait @,
the --latest conveniences' ever 1nstaiieo
in the most up-to-date apartment.
SO we have come to the point Wnere
this wears or next years profits or losses
are a secondary matter. We are resolved
to have home In the country. and to
make it self-sustaining. 1t may take
three years. or five years. or ten years
TO do it, but eventually we shall ma a
way. Always there Is the certitude tina!
the dwellers in cities must be fed, and
the feeding of them is the business OF
the farm. With such an open shut
nronosition. final failure is unthinkable.
Day by Day Recompense.
Nor are we to be likened to those
fanatics who mortify the flesh today,
hoping for reward in the future. No day
passes without bringing it's recompenses
Some of them are small. SO small they
might be overlooked by those OF large
ambitions, but they weigh heavily in
the scale of contentment
| That word "contentment' has marvel
| Gus pregnancy. When the Iowa German
! found it in his radishes and oHicns and
/ a. s.,