Norwich bulletin., 1915-09-18

sWE1Cbeu SpeC1ally 1Or 1no ouASIAA' Out in Mason county, H., there is farmers boy who is puzzled whether to make a farmer out of himself or go into q commercial life. So he wrote to his farm paper a month ago and asked it's advice. Whereupon the editor, recog- nizfng in the boys question one which had a. wide interest, promptly turned 1t over to his readers and asked them to advise the lad Which they are doing. to o;tte extent of a dozen or more letters week.
 All, tho answers arc from farmers or farm people. And every one which have seen agrees with all the others in advising the boy to make farming his life work
 farmers mostly are, this strikes me as curious. if not actually Illuminating. It is not common for men in any line of business, who have experienced its particular hardships and worries and vexations, to advise young men to, go through what they have gone through. The other day a lawyer. speaking of his own son, said to me: T don't know what Tom is expecting to make of himself, but told him, the last time we were talking together, to be anything in Gods world but law
 
 vises his son to become carpenter; the carpenter sends his boy out to learn electrical work; the electrician steers his. if he can, into railroading. and did you ever hear of the railroad or. the newspaper man who wanted his children to follow him on the railroad or the newspaper?
 But shere are scores of old farmers, taking the trouble to write letters which doesn't comesreal handy to any old farmer-urging a strange lad to stick to farming.
 Looks as if they had found some thing in their work besides fll-paid toll and disappointment and failure, doesn't it?
 their own lives all a mistake, doesn't
 Looks as if they really believed in the farm, doesn't it?
 Yet they all bore down hard on the need of ambition and push and steady labor. There was one phrase in one of the letters which struck this particular John Farmer forcibly.
 Cant is the worst cuss word know
 ss--p -%
 Perhaps this isn't wholly new idea. Seems to me I've heard it said that where there's a will there's a way" And there used to be a speaking piece" in the old district school days which had for its burden If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Lord Lytton's ,line is famous to the effect that in the lexicon of youth there is no such word as "fail." And so on.
 Nevertheless. there is a certain vig- orous freshness in the assertion that "can't'a, is the worst cuss word in the language which .indpresses the reader.
 No word is a 1euss word" in and by itself. by its own nature and of first intention. It's the way in which it is used and the: spirit of the user which often governs it's quality. Damn is not primarily profane. It means sim Pope wrote of "damning with faint praise" and meant thereby nothing more than the expression. of a con- cealed censure. Yet the word is true "cuss word" when used cussingly. In- deed. there is no need of any word at all to be profane, if profanity is meant Vide Tom. Hoods angry man who
 Shut the door to with a slam.
 That sounded like a wooden d-n."
 "can'tr tour shortened form of can not, is in itself wholly innocent and to see how we could get. along entire ly without it. There are things we "can't' do-iift ourselves by our own boot straps, for example. There are things that horses -"can't'' do-1y over the barn. for one. There are things that "a blow can't. do-pick huekle- berrfes;isay.
 Butt there is wide difference be- twe6hzfhat,which can't be done because by the very nature of things it is; i'm possible and that which is merely diff. flcult to do.
 
 You can't get down that hill with them steerskand that load" said the easily discouraged farmer T kin try" respondedssthe more energetic youns man. Trying proved that. he could There wasn't any cant" about it aftersa1ls r
 When T can,t'. means simply a mix. ture of uncertainty and doubt and rnfs. judgment and cowardice and Iaziness 1t is a mighty bad word, anyway. anC ought to be dismissed from the farm. CTS vocabulary. And that, assume is what the Illinois farmer meant wFer he called it "the worst cuss word know of
 There are really very few thing.